Fewer children die with guns in states with lax laws

According to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, states that apply more and more laws restricting youth access to firearms have a death rate of 39, children and adolescents less high.

"Firearms discussions are so focused on federal law, but we can do a lot to influence change at the local and state levels," said researcher Stephanie Chao, a surgical assistant professor at Stanford.

In California, Illinois and Maryland, where the most stringent laws require families to leave arms unloaded and locked, the number of firearm deaths is two times lower than in the lowest states. restrictive, such as Alaska, Arizona and Alabama. States with stringent laws recorded an average of 2.6 deaths per year per 100,000 children, compared with 5 deaths per 100,000 in less restrictive states. California recorded 2.36 deaths per 100,000 children – the lowest level of the spectrum.

The difference between suicide rates by firearm was even more pronounced. Gun suicides were four times less common in states with severe restrictions, with 0.63 suicide per year among children, compared to 2.57 suicides in states with less restrictive laws.

The results show that state-level legislation plays an important role in reducing the number of firearm-related deaths among children. The lead authors of the study, to be presented on Nov. 5 at a conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Orlando, Florida, are former graduate student Sriraman Madhavan and the Dr. Jordan Taylor, Postdoctoral Researcher.

"Nobody wants guns in the hands of children. This is probably the only area that everyone can agree on, "said Chao.

While 27 states have laws protecting children's access, she said: "These 23 other states have a tremendous opportunity to implement some form of prevention."

The severity of the laws varies. Some states simply require the safe storage and handling of firearms; Others, like California, claim that an adult can be prosecuted if a minor has access to a negligently stored firearm.

But any law designed to reduce children's access to firearms leads to fewer deaths, the study said.

This finding is valid even after taking into account socio-economic differences between states, such as poverty, unemployment, drug abuse and graduation rates, said Chao, pediatric surgeon and medical director of trauma care at Lucile. Packard Children's Hospital Stanford.

Its role includes looking for ways to prevent serious injury to children. She did the research because she knew that the laws sometimes did not have the desired effect.

Firearm injuries are the second leading cause of infant death in the United States, with 2,715 deaths per year. Of these deaths, 62.1% were homicides and 31.4% were suicides. A child is 82 times more likely to die in our country from a gunshot injury than in any other developed country, according to Chao.

Adult research has suggested that laws are protective. A 2013 article in JAMA Internal Medicine found that states with the most laws, including Massachusetts and New Jersey, have 42 per cent lower gun death rates than states with the fewest restrictions , including Utah and Oklahoma.

The Chao team reviewed the gun laws of each of the 50 states, then assessed the overall stringency of each state's gun laws from 2014 using an indicator called Brady score, from the name of James Brady, who advocates gun control since his permanent disability in 1981. Attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan.

Scores ranged from -39 in the least stringent state, Arizona, to +76 in the most stringent state, California. States were divided into four groups based on their Brady score. They also assessed whether each state had child access prevention laws, which were divided into two groups: laws that require safe storage of firearms (locked or unloaded), or two), and the laws that impose the responsibility not to prevent minors from accessing firearms.

State scores were significantly related to gun deaths among children aged 0 to 19 between 2014 and 2015, even after controlling for other factors.

While this finding is correlative and does not prove cause and effect, lawmakers should consider this when proposing policy changes, Chao said.