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Firearms are sending nearly 8,000 children to emergencies every year in the United States, according to the nation's first nationally representative study on the subject.
According to an Associated Press report on the analysis, approximately 75,000 American children and adolescents visited emergency rooms following firearm injuries between 2006 and 2014.
One third of these children were apparently hospitalized and 6% died. Just under half of all firearm injuries were caused by assaults, almost 40% were accidental or unintentional, and 2% were suicides.
Boys are more likely than girls to go to the emergency room after being wounded by a firearm.
The percentage of children attending emergency rooms due to firearm injuries has increased in recent years, from 7 per 100,000 in 2013 to 10 per 100,000 in 2014.
It has declined since 2007, however, while the rate was 15 per 100,000, reported the AP.
Dr. Denise Dowd, an emergency physician from a hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, told AP that it was difficult to understand the extent of injuries related to firearms. in the United States because the federal government limited funding for research on gun violence.
"It is really important that we have an idea of the magnitude of lost and injured lives and the amount of money we spend … so that we can make it a priority for national health," he said. said Dowd to the press service.
A July study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that the number of homicides committed with a firearm in the United States increased by 31% between 2014 and 2016, but did not provide details on the reason for this increase.
A series of mass shootings this year, including a Saturday attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue that killed 11 people, drew national attention to the problem of gun violence.
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