Half as many children are killed by guns in US states where laws governing the sale, purchase and use of the weapons are stricter, a new study reveals.
In the last two decades, more than 26,000 children and teenagers have been killed by guns, accounting for more pediatric deaths than heart disease and cancer combined.
Guns are the second-leading cause of pediatric death in the US. The figure is distressing, but has done little to drive broad-sweeping gun reform.
But like so many other issues in the US, Americans are divided when it comes to how tightly gun ownership should be restricted – and the safety of children, too, divides along those lines, the new Stanford University study demonstrates.
In the Midwest and South where gun laws are lax (dark red), far more children are injured or killed than in states in the West and Northeast (light red, where gun laws are stricter
After Nikolas Cruz shot and killed 17 of their classmates in February, the students of Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida became the stirring, young faces of gun violence in the US – and tireless advocates for better regulation of weapons.
Three months later, 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis killed 10 of his classmates at Santa Fe High School in Dallas, Texas.
Those are only two of the 37 school shootings that have taken place in the US so far this year.
Horrifying though these acts of premeditated violence are, the 27 children killed in those incidents are just a fraction of the 560 children that Gun Violence Archive estimates have been killed or injured by guns in 2018 alone.
School shootings attract enormous (and warranted) media attention, but that coverage is far from telling the entire story of guns and kids in US.
While undoubtedly Americans as a whole would like to stop violence against children, opinions on how to do that vary – as do our laws.
Firearm ownership in the US is broadly protected by the Second Amendment and about a dozen federal laws.
But every state has its own legislation and regulation on gun ownership, registration and use. From coast to coast, gun laws differ in number and strictness.
California has 107 laws regarding guns and Massachusetts has 101.
On the other end of the spectrum, Missouri, Idaho and Mississippi each have just two laws each pertaining to guns on the books.
Researchers and pediatricians at Columbia University wanted to evaluate the relationship between this legislation and the number of children injured or killed by gunfire in each state.
Though the study is ongoing, the results presented in a paper abstract at the American Academy of Pediatrics paint a clear picture of the relationship.
In regions of the US where gun laws are stricter – the West and Northeast – 7.54 out of every 100,000 children’s injuries are caused by guns.
But 8.3 out of every 100,00 children injured in states with looser gun restrictions – those in the South and Midwest – are harmed by firearms.
Perhaps even more telling, half as many children are killed by guns in the stricter regions than in those where gun laws are lax.
‘We found a clear discrepancy in where those deaths happen that corresponds with the strength of states’ firearm legislation,’ said lead study author, Dr Stephanie Chao, a Stanford pediatrician.
‘In states with lenient laws, children die at alarmingly greater rates.’
Dr Chao noted that the study’s finding of discrepancy might point policymakers in toward the most productive avenues for firearm reform.
‘While federal legislation on firearms remains a contentious and gridlocked issue, we found that state legislation may be an opportunity to prevent pediatric deaths from firearms,’ she said.
In 2012, former President Barrack Obama pushed for the Senate to pass a set of federal gun reforms in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that claimed the lives of 20 young children.
None of the bills made it far. By 2013, the legislation was dead in the water.
After Parkland, President Trump promised ‘big, beautiful’ gun legislation, focused on limiting access to automatic weapons. But passage anytime soon seems unlikely.
Florida, on the other hand, moved swiftly after the Parkland massacre, passing a bill to raise the minimum age requirement to purchase a gun to 21, banning certain firearm modules that allow for faster, more continuous shooing and, controversially, allowing teachers to be armed, with the agreement of local police.
The bill passed just one month after the shooting.
It’s too soon to say how effective the law will be at preventing pediatric gun deaths, but it shows promise in light of the new study.
‘Our study demonstrates that state-level legislation prevents children from dying from guns,’ Dr Chao said.