APS ISSUE OF THE YEAR NEWS
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy: Firearm Violence Is a Public Health Crisis
Consider these grim statistics: there were more than 48 000 firearms-related deaths in the US in 2022, equating to 132 adults and children dying every day. And firearms are now the leading cause of death among US children and teens. What can public health leaders, medical professionals, and health systems do to mitigate gun violence and protect the health and safety of communities? They can do a lot, says the US Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, who in June took the step of declaring firearm violence a public health crisis. A new advisory from Murthy highlights the impact of gun violence and, in particular, its toll on mental health and community safety. It also offers a public health approach to addressing the issue, with several specific recommendations. Read More
VCU Health’s “Bridging the Gap” Tackles Youth Gun Violence Causes
Gun violence has been on the rise nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center; in June, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared it a public health crisis. Guns are also the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in Virginia. Dr. Michel Aboutanos created a first-in-the-nation program called “Bridging the Gap” to stop gun violence in the commonwealth. He’s the medical director at VCU Health’s Trauma Center. Dr. Aboutanos joined VPM News Morning Edition Host Phil Liles to talk about the program and how it’s now being implemented across Virginia. Read More
A new report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions underscores the continuing epidemic of gun deaths in the U.S., including among children and especially among Black youth. The Center is based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The report, Gun Violence in the United States 2022: Examining the Burden Among Children and Teens, assessed the latest finalized data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, highlighting that 48,204 people, the second highest on record, died from gunshots in the U.S. in 2022, including 27,032 suicides, an all-time high for the country. The annual report’s major focus this year is on gun deaths among children ages 1 to 17. In the U.S., gun death rates in this age group have increased by 106 percent since 2013 and have been the leading cause of death among this group since 2020. Read More
Federal Action Backed by AAP Will Encourage Medicaid to Pay for Firearms Safety Counseling
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services later this month will lay out how states can use Medicaid to pay pediatricians, children’s hospitals and other health care providers for counseling parents and caregivers on firearm safety and injury prevention. Encouraging safe storage of firearms has long been a key AAP initiative. The AAP advises families who own guns to keep them locked and unloaded with ammunition locked separately. “This anticipatory guidance is applicable across the child’s life spectrum, which can include protecting toddlers from unintentionally pulling the trigger of a loaded firearm found in the nightstand drawer, making sure parents know to ask about firearms in other homes where their children spend time or play, or preventing access to lethal means when a teenager impulsively wants to commit suicide and knows the firearm is loaded in the closet,” said APS member Lois K. Lee, MD, MPH, FAAP, chair of the AAP Council on Injury, Violence and Poison Prevention. Read More
University of Michigan to Study Impact of School-Based Firearm Storage Campaign
In an effort to combat firearm injuries and deaths among children, researchers from the University of Michigan are set to evaluate a school-based secure firearm storage campaign. The initiative, funded by a nearly $1 million grant from the National Institute of Justice and led by End Gun Violence Michigan, aims to ensure firearms are stored securely when minors are present. The campaign will launch in several Michigan schools, targeting both urban and rural settings to promote safe storage practices among adults and prevent adolescent firearm violence. This research is particularly significant given that firearms are currently the leading cause of death among children in the United States. Read More
Improving Firearm Safety in Pediatric Primary Care
Firearm injuries and deaths among young people are a major public health concern. While secure storage is a proven safety measure, less than 30% of homes with children report storing firearms locked and unloaded. In a new study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, researchers aimed to address this gap by testing the effectiveness of two scalable approaches to promoting safe firearm storage when used during routine well-child visits. Read More
US States Where Gun Violence Has Surpassed Car Accidents as the #1 Killer of Children
Almost 10,500 children and teens were killed as a result of gun violence in the U.S. between 2020 and 2022, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. That’s more than the 9,928 children who lost their lives in motor vehicle-related incidents in the same time period. Northwell Health partnered with Stacker to analyze CDC mortality statistics nationwide and highlight the individual states where gun deaths are surpassing motor vehicle accidents, becoming the leading cause of death for American kids through their high school years. The gun death data analyzed includes homicide, suicide, and accidental deaths for anyone 18 and younger. Vehicular deaths included all motor vehicle transportation-related deaths for the same age group. Read More
Majority of Kids Who Die in Mass Shootings Killed by Family Members, Study Shows
When U.S. children die in mass shootings, most of the time the perpetrator is a family member, new Stanford Medicine-led research shows. The findings, which were published online Feb. 10 in JAMA Pediatrics, come from the first analysis of the relationships between mass shooting perpetrators and pediatric victims, those who are younger than 18 years old. “It was surprising that domestic violence was so pervasive, that 59% of kids who died in mass shootings were at the hands of a family member,” said the study’s senior author, Stephanie Chao, MD, associate professor of surgery. The lead author is Pamela Emengo, MD, a research fellow in pediatric surgery. Read More
A Call for Federally Funded Pediatric Firearm Injury Prevention Research
Firearm-related injuries are the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the United States, yet research on firearm injury prevention receives significantly less federal funding compared to other major pediatric health concerns. A paper published in Pediatrics underscores the critical need for enhanced federal investment in firearm injury prevention research to address the rising rates of fatalities and injuries. “Expanding the field of firearm injury prevention research is crucial to reverse the devastating trends of firearm violence in the United States,” says lead author and APS member Lois Lee, MD, MPH, from the Division of Emergency Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Read More
Youth Gun Deaths in the US Have Surged 50% Since 2019
Firearm-related deaths among children and teenagers in the United States have risen sharply in recent years, increasing by 50% since 2019. In 2023, firearms remained the leading cause of death among American youth for the third year in a row, followed by motor vehicle accidents, according to the latest mortality data released by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data shows 2,581 children aged 17 and under died from firearm-related incidents in 2023, including accidents, homicides and suicides, with a national rate of nearly four gun deaths per 100,000 children. Read More
The Role of Family-Level Factors in Firearm Storage Practices
Firearm-related injuries and fatalities among youth in the United States represent a critical public health crisis. Secure firearm storage (i.e., keeping guns unloaded, locked, and stored separately from ammunition) is a proven strategy to reduce these risks. However, many households do not consistently adopt these practices. This review examines four key family-level factors that influence firearm storage decisions: (a) early firearm socialization, (b) family decision-making dynamics, (c) other household safety practices, and (d) parent understanding of child development and motivations regarding storage. Findings indicate that interventions may benefit from empowering parents to reflect on their early firearm socialization experiences, improving their understanding of children’s development, integrating firearm safety into broader household safety frameworks, and promoting collaborative decision-making in multi-adult households. Read More
Variations by State in Firearm Suicide Among US Children and Young Adults, 2016-2021
In 2017, firearms surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among US children and young adults aged 1 to 24 years. When injury intent is considered in aggregate in this population nationally, suicide accounts for approximately 30% of firearm deaths and homicide for 65%. However, examining national aggregate data may not accurately represent firearm suicides on the state level, where there may be different risk factors. Understanding the variability of suicide rates between states is important for informing prevention strategies for children and young adults at the state level. APS member Lois K. Lee, MD, MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School, is a co-author of this research letter. Read More
Most States Have Higher Child, Adolescent Firearm Mortality Rates, U-M Study Finds
Injury-related mortality rates, including firearm-related deaths, among children and adolescents increased in almost every state between 2018-2022, according to findings from the University of Michigan. Researchers from the U-M Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention analyzed mortality data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-ranging Outline Data for Epidemiologic Research and found that nearly 90% of states saw an increase in mortality rates among children and adolescents overall during the study period. Read More
Steven Selbst, MD: ‘We Have to Be Ready’ to Respond, Help in Mass Shooting Situations
APS member Steven Selbst, MD, joined Contemporary Pediatrics at the 2024 American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition to discuss how in today’s world, health care professionals, including pediatricians need to be ready to help if a mass shooting takes place in their respective city. Selbst explains drills are taking place more frequently to prepare for an influx of patients in the event of a mass shooting and calls for all health care providers to be ready to assist at any given time. Selbst is a professor of Pediatrics at Nemours Children’s Health in Wilmington, Delaware and Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Read More
At Home and At Risk: A Study on Pediatric Unintentional Firearm Injuries in the USA
Firearm injury represents a critical and growing public health threat, particularly affecting pediatric populations. Among children aged 1-19 in the United States, firearm-related injuries have emerged as the leading cause of death, surpassing even motor vehicle collisions. These injuries encompass a spectrum that includes suicides, homicides, and unintentional discharges, each contributing significantly to morbidity and mortality in this vulnerable age group. The gravity of this issue is underscored by the fact that for every child who dies from a firearm injury, it is estimated that 2.5 times as many children are treated in emergency departments for non-fatal firearm injuries, highlighting the extensive impact of firearm-related incidents on the healthcare system and communities at large. Read More
Yale Experts Weigh in on Gun Violence Prevention Research Possibly Under Threat
In 2019, federal centers like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health started funding gun violence research after more than a 20-year hiatus. However, this research is once again under threat. This year, the budget bill for the 2025 fiscal year seeks to eliminate funding for “any research relating to gunshot injury or mortality prevention that treats crimes committed with a firearm as a public health epidemic.” The News talked to Yale researchers about the proposal and the impact it would have on such research. “It’s so easy for this kind of stuff to get hidden in the 400-page document of budget proposals put out by the community, and no one knows about it,” Daniele Poole, director of research at the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, told the News. Read More
Firearm and Motor Vehicle Pediatric Deaths—Intersections of Age, Sex, Race, and Ethnicity
Injuries from firearms and motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) are the leading causes of death among US children and youths aged 0 to 19 years. Examining the intersections of age group, sex, race, and ethnicity is essential to focus prevention efforts. This cross-sectional study of firearm and MVC fatalities among US children and youths aged 0 to 19 years from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web-Based Injury Statistics and Query Reporting System from 2011 to 2021. Participants included American Indian and Alaska Native; Asian, Hawaiian Native, and Pacific Islander; Black; Hispanic; and White youths. Data analysis was conducted from July 2023 to May 2024. APS members Lois K. Lee, MD, MPH, (left) from Boston Children’s Hospital, and Eric W. Fleegler, MD, MPH, (right) from Massachusetts General Hospital, are among the authors of this study published in JAMA Pediatrics. Read More
Findings Show Child Access Prevention (CAP) Firearm Storage Policies Reduce Youth Gun Suicide Rates
A new study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Bloomberg School of Public Health found that the presence of child access prevention (CAP) firearm storage policies was associated with reductions in youth gun suicide rates. CAP policies impose criminal liability on adults if a child gains access to an unsecured firearm or the gun is stored in a manner where a child is likely to gain access to it. As of January 2025, 27 states and Washington, D.C. have CAP or safe storage laws in effect. The study found that CAP firearm storage policies effectively reduce firearm suicide deaths, as well as firearm-related unintentional injuries and homicide in youth ages 1-17. Researchers found CAP laws lowered suicide rates by up to 14%. The policies were found to be most effective in reducing youth suicide by firearms when they required parents or guardians of children ages 16 and younger to store firearms unloaded and locked in a secure device. Read More
Quantifying Firearm-Related Hospitalizations: A Growing U.S. Public Health Crisis
Firearm-related injuries have become the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the United States, surpassing motor vehicle accidents in recent years. This alarming trend represents a uniquely American public health crisis, with devastating consequences for families, communities, and the health care system at large. Beyond the tragic loss of life, there is a significant, yet often overlooked, burden of morbidity among pediatric survivors of firearm injuries. A recent study addresses this critical gap and provides a comprehensive analysis of the trends and costs of firearm-related hospitalizations in children under age 21 across 48 states. Read More
Pediatric Hospital Study Links Structural and Social Drivers of Health to Increased Recurrent Violence in Children with Firearm Injuries
Researchers in the Center for Violence Prevention (CVP) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) collaborated with a team led by Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago that found children living in areas with the lowest Child Opportunity Index (COI), a measure that assesses factors like education, socioeconomic resources and access to health environments, were more than twice as likely to experience another violent injury within a year of an initial firearm related emergency department (ED) visit. The retrospective study was published recently in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. “Our findings emphasize the urgent need for targeted interventions to address the root causes of firearm violence in children,” said APS member Joel Fein, MD, MPH, a study author and co-director of CVP at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Read More
Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Pediatric Firearm Deaths Persist in 2022 and 2023
Excerpt from Injury Epidemiology article: Firearms became the leading cause of death in the United States pediatric population in 2019 and have persisted as the leading cause through 2021, with widening racial and ethnic disparities. This study aimed to examine recent trends in U.S pediatric firearm mortality, how they differ by intent, and identify which ages, and racial and ethnic groups have been most impacted over time. Read More
Children as Young as 10 Are Advertised Guns on Social Media
To more than 270,000 YouTube subscribers and 49,000 Instagram followers, 11-year-old Pennsylvanian Autumn Fry shares videos and photos of her latest purchases and makes suggestions for what her fans should buy too. But it is not dolls or makeup that interest the tween. Instead, Fry exclusively reviews guns and gun paraphernalia. It is a striking example of how America’s firearms culture has permeated to younger generations, but Fry is not alone in possessing a precocious awareness of Glocks and Colts. Indeed, children as young as 10 say they are seeing firearm content online, including advertising. According to polling conducted by Sandy Hook Promise and KRC Research, exclusively shared with Newsweek, 82 percent of boys between 10 and 17 said they have seen at least one gun advert online, while social media is flooded with firearms branded with children’s cartoon characters and influencers like Fry promoting guns to children. Read More
Saving Our Kids: The Role of Pediatric Clinicians in Preventing Gun Violence
Year after year, tens of thousands of lives in the United States are lost to homicide due to a gun and, according to the CDC, in 2020 guns became the leading cause of death for children and teenagers. In this episode of Talking Pediatrics, a clinical podcast by Children’s Minnesota, Dr. Marc Gorelick talks about the ongoing epidemic of gun violence and how we can start to address this public health crisis. Dr. Gorelick, CEO of Children’s Minnesota, has been a consistent and fierce advocate for gun violence prevention. Listen Here
The Updated Haddon Matrix for Pediatric Firearm Injuries
Firearms are the leading cause of injuries and death in US children and youth 1 to 24 years old. Over the past decade pediatric firearm fatality rates have increased 67%. In 2021, of the 10 938 pediatric firearm deaths, 61% were homicides and 35% were suicides. There are also important disparities by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status for firearm injuries and deaths among US children and youth. However, these firearm deaths among US children and youth should not be considered inevitable nor unavoidable. Although the strategies to address this public health problem are complex, we present an updated scientific approach applied to the foundational framework of the Haddon Matrix for injury prevention to reduce firearm injuries and deaths to children and youth. APS members Lois K. Lee, MD, MPH (left); Danielle Laraque-Arena, MD (center); and Eric W. Fleegler, MD, MPH (right), are co-authors of this viewpoint article in Jama Surgery. Read More
The only firearm restrictions found to be effective in reducing mass shootings involving children were laws banning the sale of firearms equipped with a large-capacity magazines, according to a new analysis presented during the American Academy of Pediatrics 2024 National Conference and Exhibition. For the eight states that adopted large capacity magazine bans, the odds of a child dying from a mass shooting was decreased by 91%, according to an abstract. In contrast, the most common laws – which include restrictions on gun purchasing or the possession of firearms around children in a school setting – failed to show a significant decrease in child deaths due to mass shootings. “Mass shootings are horrific events. We found that large capacity magazine bans may have the biggest effect on reducing child deaths in mass shootings,” said Stephanie Chao, MD, FAAP, senior author of the study. “We hope that research like ours can help legislators to make informed choices.” Read More
Firearm Experiences, Behaviors, and Norms Among Rural Adolescents
Rural adolescents are at greater risk than their urban counterparts for firearm-involved unintentional injury or death and firearm suicide. Research on firearms in rural communities finds that, compared with urban adolescents, rural adolescents have greater access to firearms, have higher rates of carrying firearms, and experience unique firearm-related contextual factors. For example, rural residences are more likely than urban residences to have firearms in the home and to store them unlocked and loaded. Given the risk of death by suicide and homicide associated with household access to firearms and limited access to health care in rural areas, firearm injury prevention strategies that are developmentally appropriate and effective for rural adolescents are greatly needed. Read More
Biden Wants Medicaid Doctors to Talk to Parents About Firearms
The Biden administration wants more health care providers to talk to parents about keeping their kids safe around firearms, as data shows kids are increasingly dying by suicide, accidents and homicides involving guns. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has given states the green light to allow Medicaid providers to counsel parents and caregivers of children about firearm safety and injury prevention. Public health advocates hope the conversations become as routine as physicians talking to parents about car seats, water safety, substance use and other safety issues impacting kids. “For the first time, it’s allowing CMS to consider using Medicaid funds to fund these types of screening questions,” said Chethan Sathya, a pediatric trauma surgeon and firearm injury prevention researcher at Northwell Health, the largest health care provider in New York. Read More
With Federal Gun Control on Ice, Advocates Look to Other Solutions for School Shootings
Advocates are urging greater action against school shootings in 2025, saying the only way to slow the bloodshed is a combination of moves from legislators, schools and parents. Multiple trackers counted an increase in school shootings last year, and experts are calling for solutions ranging from violence prevention programs to better-secured firearms at home. The multipronged approach could be the only way to affect real change on school shootings under a unified GOP government that is unlikely to make any substantial moves on gun control. “Make no mistake, these are not right or left issues, these are life or death issues. As 2025 gets underway, there’s no stopping our progress in states across the country because when it comes to the leading cause of death for children and teens, nothing will stand in our way,” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, head of research at Everytown for Gun Safety. Read More
Cincinnati Children’s Seeks to Prevent Firearm-Related Injuries Among Children with Novel Approach
Recently published research led by Cincinnati Children’s experts demonstrates both the need for, and effectiveness of, a program to train pediatric care providers to have conversations with patient families about firearm safety during regular care visits. Firearm-related injuries account for 20% of all childhood deaths in the United States – more than cancer, infectious diseases, car crashes or any other single cause. In 2020 alone, more than 4,300 children died from firearm-related injuries, which is the equivalent of five school buses full of kids every month. Roughly one in three U.S. households has at least one firearm and nearly half of those do not store them securely. Moreover, 75% of children in those homes know where those firearms are located. To combat this epidemic, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends providers have discussions about securely storing firearms with families during regular pediatric visits. Cincinnati Children’s has taken a proactive approach to this in a way no other institution in the country has – by creating an interactive, virtual-reality-based training tool that teaches providers how to have these life-saving conversations with families. Read More
First-of-its-Kind Gun Violence Prevention Initiative Convenes Health Care and Business Leaders
At Northwell Health’s 6th annual Gun Violence Prevention Forum, the Ad Council launched a new gun violence prevention initiative in collaboration with a coalition of health care and business leaders, providing tangible, nonpartisan actions that can help decrease the impact of gun related tragedies on children and teens throughout the country. The new effort is the first national cross-sector youth gun violence prevention campaign with a public health approach and aims to address the fact that firearm injuries have been the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 17 for three consecutive years in the United States. Read More
Age-Specific Trends in Pediatric and Adult Firearm Homicide After the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic sparked an unprecedented increase in firearm violence in the US: from 2019 to 2020, firearm homicides increased by over 30%. Children faced severe inequities; in 4 major cities, firearm assaults against children doubled after the onset of the pandemic, and the ratio of disparities between Black and White children exceeded 100 to 1. There is substantial age specificity in firearm mortality rates; however, prior research on pandemic-era firearm injuries has not thoroughly analyzed age-specific trends. Read More
Health Wanted: Gun Violence
Health Wanted, a weekly radio show and podcast, brings need-to-know public health headlines and breaks down the science behind trending topics. In this episode, the topic is gun violence, which is a major public health crisis in the U.S. and the number one cause of death for children aged 1-19. Host Laurel Bristow, Associate Director of Audience Development from Emory University Rollins School of Public Health, and guest Nandita Somayaji, Senior Research Data Analyst from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, explore how gun violence affects health and why research and prevention efforts are more critical than ever. Gun violence presents a serious threat to public health in the U.S. and funding cuts to suppress federal research have seriously affected efforts to understand and prevent it. Despite more recent progress in funding and public awareness, current policy rollbacks and staffing cuts threaten to stall vital change. Learn More