Guns Kill Fewer Kids with Strict Firearm Laws

By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, Nov. 2, 2018 (HealthDay News) – Kids are safer in states with strict gun laws, a new preliminary study reports.

Researchers found that the stringency of a state of firearm legislation has a direct impact on the number of kids killed by guns.

Twice as many child gun deaths occur in the most severe laws, when compared with states where the laws are strictest, said lead researcher Dr. Stephanie Chao, trauma medical director at Stanford University's School of Medicine.

"It seemed to have a dose-dependent effect," Chao said.

Lax firearms laws, in particular, create an increased risk for suicide among children, the researchers found.

Laws that limit children 's access to guns – requirements for locking mechanisms on guns, keeping safe in their locked boxes or safe keeping.

"Chao said," That states that did not have any laws designed to specifically protect children, "said Chao said.

Shepherd and Fellow in the Death of a Child with a Scorecard. The group rates gun law stringency state-by-state.

Arizona has the loosest laws, while California is the strictest, according to the Brady Campaign.

The study found that the link between child gun and gun control laws persisted even after the researchers controlled for other factors like poverty, unemployment and substance abuse.

Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said, "It's more evidence of what we already know, which is what is an independent determinant of injury and death, separate from pretty much anything else."

There also appeared to be a spillover effect. The safety of children in the United States is affected by the laws of the United States.

"It's clearly access," said Benjamin. "Kids are finding those firearms, and it's not just preventable shootings, where a child picked up a gun and somehow fired it." "It's also suicides." "This really nails the case that it's about the guns and the firearm availability."

Firearm laws also influence the number of gun injuries sustained by children, according to the study.

Regions with higher average Brady scores, the Northeast and West, had 7.5 injuries per 100,000 children, the researchers said. This compared with 8.3 injuries per 100,000 children in the Midwest and South, where average Brady scores were low.

The study is scheduled for presentation Monday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in Orlando, Fla.

Another research team presenting at the AAP conference

For the study, Dr. Kiesha Fraser Doh and her colleagues surveyed about 300 caregiver-child peers visiting one of three pediatric emergency departments in the southeastern United States over a three-month period in 2017.

Only 41 percent of kids aged 7 to 17 could tell a gun from an actual firearm when shown side-by-side photos of both, the researchers found.

Dr. Fraser Doh, an emergency medicine physician at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, said: "This is the cause of the gun owners who have been diagnosed with guns.

Also, only one-third of the gun owners stored their guns locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition, as recommended by the AAP, the researchers found.

"Part of the messaging we would want parents to give their children is if they see a firearm, walk away," Fraser Doh said. If a kid can not tell a real gun from a gun, they are more likely to go over and play with them.

Research presented at meetings is usually considered first published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

The American Academy of Pediatrics has more about gun safety and children.

SOURCES: Stephanie Chao, MD, trauma medical director, Stanford School of Medicine, California; George Benjamin, M.D., executive director, American Public Health Association; Kiesha Fraser Doh, MD, Emergency Medicine Physician, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta; Nov. 5, 2018, annual meeting, American Academy of Pediatrics