A new study revealed that more children and teens are becoming victims of gunshots. What’s alarming is that majority of the bullet source is from household firearms particularly handguns.
Dr. Arin L. Madenci, lead author of the study and a surgical resident at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and her colleagues studied the statistics from the Kids' Inpatient Database between 1997 and 2009. The data included about 36 million pediatric hospital admissions. They also looked at the estimated household firearm ownership from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System if there was a correlation between the two.
Their analysis revealed that about 500 children and teens die in hospitals each year due to gunshots, up by 60 percent from earlier accounted report. Furthermore, about 7,500 kids are rushed to the emergency room each year, up by 80 percent from earlier study.
The researchers then looked at the household firearm data. They discovered that eight out of children and teens wounded by gunshots were inflicted by household firearms. Medical reports show that majority of the bullets were from handguns.
“Handguns account for the majority of childhood gunshot wounds and this number appears to be increasing over the last decade,” Madenci said. “Furthermore, states with higher percentages of household firearm ownership also tended to have higher proportions of childhood gunshot wounds, especially those occurring in the home.”
Their findings call for the government to also pay attention on the dangers of household firearms and not just on military firearms. About 62 percent of household firearms accounted are from Montana.
"Policies designed to reduce the number of household firearms, especially handguns, might more effectively reduce the number of gunshot injuries in children," Madenci said.
The study was presented Sunday at a conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics, held in Orlando, Fla.
