Looser gun laws tied to thousands more US child shooting deaths
WASHINGTON: US states that loosened their gun laws following a landmark court ruling saw thousands more childhood firearm deaths than they otherwise would have -- the vast majority homicides and suicides -- according to a study published Monday.
Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and lead author of the paper in JAMA Pediatrics, told AFP he was drawn to the topic as a father wondering whether today's world is safer for children than when he was growing up.
"Mortality from car accidents has fallen dramatically, but at the same time, firearm mortality rose and replaced car accidents as the leading cause of death in children over the age of one," he said -- a trend unique among peer nations.
Washington Post reveals US weapons used by terrorists in attacks
To probe this shift, Faust and his colleagues analyzed state-level data before and after McDonald v Chicago, the 2010 Supreme Court decision that extended the Second Amendment to state and local governments.
The ruling sparked a wave of legislation, some tightening gun laws but much of it loosening them.
The team grouped states into three categories -- most permissive, permissive, and strict -- and used Centers for Disease Control data on firearm deaths among children aged 0-17.
They ran an "excess mortality analysis," comparing actual deaths from 2011 to 2023 against projections based on prior trends from 1999 to 2010 and population growth.
The results were stark: more than 7,400 excess pediatric firearm deaths in states that loosened gun laws -- including over 6,000 in the most permissive group of states.
By contrast, the eight strictest states overall saw no excess deaths. The model predicted 4,267 fatalities, while 4,212 were recorded -- a near-match that bolstered confidence in the analysis.
"The biggest thing people always want to know is, what's the intent behind these?" said Faust.
"And I think what surprises most people is that accidents are a very small number of these deaths -- it's mostly homicide and suicide."
While the study showed strong associations, it cannot prove causation -- a key limitation.
But in a test of whether broader increases in violence might explain the trend, rather than changes to the law, the team analyzed non-firearm homicides and suicides and found no similar rise, a result that makes the findings "pretty compelling," said Faust.
Black children saw the steepest increases. While the reasons are unclear, the authors speculated that disparities in safe firearm storage could play a role.
There were some exceptions. Deaths rose in Illinois and Connecticut despite tighter laws -- though in the latter case, the spike was entirely attributable to the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting at an elementary school.
"Big picture, we have a major problem in this country," said Faust.
"But we also have a handful of states that are resisting these increases and, in fact, turning the other direction."
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Express Tribune
17 hours ago
- Express Tribune
Study finds more microplastic in glass bottles than plastic
Study defied assumptions that glass would be safer than plastic. Photo: File Drinks including water, soda, beer and wine sold in glass bottles contain more microplastics than those in plastic bottles, according to a surprising study released by France's food safety agency on Friday. Researchers have detected the tiny, mostly invisible pieces of plastic throughout the world, from in the air we breathe to the food we eat, as well as riddled throughout human bodies. There is still no direct evidence that this preponderance of plastic is harmful to human health, but a burgeoning field of research is aiming to measure its spread. Guillaume Duflos, research director at French food safety agency ANSES, told AFP the team sought to "investigate the quantity of microplastics in different types of drinks sold in France and examine the impact different containers can have". The researchers found an average of around 100 microplastic particles per litre in glass bottles of soft drinks, lemonade, iced tea and beer. That was five to 50 times higher than the rate detected in plastic bottles or metal cans. "We expected the opposite result," PhD student Iseline Chaib, who conducted the research, told AFP. "We then noticed that in the glass, the particles emerging from the samples were the same shape, colour and polymer composition — so therefore the same plastic – as the paint on the outside of the caps that seal the glass bottles," she said. The paint on the caps also had "tiny scratches, invisible to the naked eye, probably due to friction between the caps when there were stored," the agency said in a statement. This could then "release particles onto the surface of the caps", it added. Wine fine For water, both flat and sparkling, the amount of microplastic was relatively low in all cases, ranging from 4.5 particles per litre in glass bottles to 1.6 particles in plastic. Wine also contained few microplastics — even glass bottles with caps. Duflos said the reason for this discrepancy "remains to be explained". Soft drinks however contained around 30 microplastics per litre, lemonade 40 and beer around 60. Because there is no reference level for a potentially toxic amount of microplastics, it was not possible to say whether these figures represent a health risk, ANSES said. But drink manufacturers could easily reduce the amount of microplastics shed by bottle caps, it added. The agency tested a cleaning method involving blowing the caps with air, then rinsing them with water and alcohol, which reduced contamination by 60 per cent. The study released by ANSES was published online in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis last month. AFP
Express Tribune
2 days ago
- Express Tribune
Israeli forces kill 60, half near aid centres
Mourned at the morgue of a central Gaza hospital, where victims of a shooting incident near an aid centre were taken. Photo AFP Gaza's civil defence agency said 31 Palestinian aid seekers were among at least 60 people killed Friday by Israeli forces, the latest in a string of deadly incidents near aid distribution sites. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern Gaza Strip and 26 others near a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, an Israeli-controlled strip of land that bisects the Palestinian territory. Thousands of Palestinians have gathered there daily in the hope of receiving food rations, as famine looms across Gaza after more than 20 months of war. The Israeli army told AFP that its troops in the Netzarim area had first fired "warning shots" at "suspects" approaching them. When the individuals continued advancing, "an aircraft struck and eliminated the suspects in order to remove the threat," the army said. Similar incidents have occurred in that area regularly since late May, when the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation opened its distribution centres, as Israel eased a two-month aid blocakde. The privately run foundation's operations in Gaza have been marred by chaotic scenes. UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with it over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives. Elsewhere in the territory on Friday, Bassal said 14 people were killed in two separate strikes in and around the central city of Deir el-Balah, and 13 others in three Israeli air strikes in the Gaza City area. One of those strikes, which killed three people, hit a phone charging station in the city, Bassal said. In southern Gaza, two people were killed "by Israeli gunfire" in two separate incidents, he added.
Express Tribune
3 days ago
- Express Tribune
Gaza rescuers say Israeli fire kills 72
An injured man sits on the rubble of a building destroyed by an Israeli strike in Beit Lahia, Gaza. PHOTO:AFP Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 72 people on Thursday, including 21 who had gathered near aid distribution sites as famine looms after more than 20 months of war. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that six people were killed while waiting for aid in the southern Gaza Strip and 15 others in a central area known as the Netzarim corridor, where thousands of Palestinians have gathered daily in the hope of receiving food rations. The Israeli army told AFP that its troops in Netzarim corridor — a strip of land militarised by Israel that bisects the Palestinian territory — had fired "warning shots" at "suspects" approaching them, but that it was "not aware of any injured individuals". The army did not comment on the incident reported in the south. In northern Gaza, Bassal said that nine separate Israeli strikes killed another 51 people, updating earlier tolls provided by his agency. Bassam Abu Shaar, who witnessed the shooting incident in the Netzarim area, said thousands of people had gathered there overnight in the hope of receiving aid at the US- and Israeli-backed distribution site when it opened in the morning. "Around 1:00 am (2200 GMT Wednesday), they started shooting at us," he told AFP by phone, reporting gunfire, tank shelling and bombs dropped by drones. Abu Shaar said that the size of the crowd had made it impossible for people to escape, with casualties left lying on the ground within walking distance of the distribution point, which is run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. "We couldn't help them or even escape ourselves," he said. At least 300 Palestinians have been killed in recent weeks while trying to reach aid distribution points in Gaza, which is suffering from famine-like conditions, the Hamas-run territory's health ministry has said. Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and authorities in the Palestinian territory. In early March, Israel imposed an aid blockade on Gaza amid a deadlock in truce negotiations, only partially easing restrictions in late May.
