High toll found for gun-related injuries in children and teens

Jan. 28, 2014, 12:19 p.m.

Our Science Now blog has details of a study released Monday in the journal Pediatrics that looks at the toll of gun injuries and deaths for children.

The study analyzed a national database of patients younger than 20 who were admitted to hospitals in 2009 to provide one of the most comprehensive recent efforts to tally the number of children hurt nationally in gun-related incidents.

The patterns reported in the study will be familiar to regular readers of the Homicide Report. Among the findings:

• Twenty children or adolescents were hospitalized for firearm-related injuries every day in 2009.

• 453 died of their wounds that year.

• Boys represent nearly 90% of the total

• African American males were 10 times more likely to suffer a gun-related injury than white males.

• Blacks ages 15 to 19 were 13 times more likely than their white peers to be injured by gunfire.

• 70% of all black children hospitalized for gun injury (compared with 32% of all white children injured by firearms) were classified as victims of assault.

• Latino children and adolescents were three times likelier than white children to be hospitalized with a firearm-related injury.

The incidents analyzed included accidental shootings and suicides as well as assaults. Read more: Guns sent 20 children to U.S. hospitals every single day, study finds

Photo: Pallbearers carry the casket of Alaysha Carradine, 8, who was shot to death at a slumber party in Oakland in July 2013. Credit: Aric Crabb / Bay Area News Group / July 30, 2013

Two reader comments

Irresponsible people are to blame, not guns, why is it that other deadly weapons are not scrutinize the same as guns, if more deaths are committed with other weapons than handguns, if people really took the time to research data out there, they would find the same results, but it's always easier to blame firearms, more guns in responsible law-abiding citizens, equals less crime. The countries that have disarmed their citizens still have a high murder rate, for instance in Russia where guns are banded, their murder rate is higher than the United States, a higher murder rate in Russia with no guns how's that possible, that goes to show that more guns doesn't necessarily translate to more murders, blame people, the irresponsible people who don't take the necessary steps to secure their weapon at home or where ever else they leave those firearms unattended.

— Ghost Feb. 1, 2014 at 9:59 p.m.

The Homicide Report

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Two reader comments