Topline
States with more restrictive gun laws had lower rates of firearm-related suicide among children yet saw no effect on child homicide rates as gun remain the leading cause of death among children—but researchers warn the strict laws may be inadvertently harming Black children, the very group they’re trying to protect.
Key Facts
The researchers examined 36 state gun laws and the effects they had on kids under the ages of 18, and found 6,735 kids died by gun-related suicide and another 10,278 died by gun-related homicide between 2009 and 2020, according to the study published Thursday in The Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
More than 87% of the children who died by suicide were white and 85% were male, while almost 60% of the kids who died by homicide were Black and boys made up 80.5% of these deaths.
States with mandatory waiting periods and safe storage laws had lower child suicide rates, while those with “stand your ground” laws—which allows the use of reasonable deadly force as a form of self defense—had higher suicide rates.
States with minimum age limits for possession or purchase of guns didn’t see any significant reductions in child suicide rates.
There were no differences in child homicide mortality rates between states with firearm laws compared to those without such laws.
As Black kids are the most affected by gun-related homicides, disproportionately targeted by law enforcement and suffer from different outcomes in mental health care, criminalizing firearms may “inadvertently differentially penalize the same communities these laws are intended to protect,” according to the researchers.
Crucial Quote
“Our study clearly points to a need for more laws and controlled access to these guns, especially given the high rates of death among children in the United States,” Krista Haines, lead author and an assistant professor in the departments of Surgery and Population Health Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, said in a statement.
What Is The Leading Cause Of Death Among Kids In The U.s.?
Firearms became the leading cause of death among kids between one and 17 in 2020, and have since remained at the top spot, according to the New England Journal of Medicine. Firearm-related deaths among this age group saw a sharp increase of 13.5% between 2019 and 2020. Other leading causes of death include drowning, suffocation and drug poisoning—which increased by 133% between 2011 and 2021.
Key Background
States with less restrictive gun laws may have more guns in circulation, increasing the chance more kids will have access to guns. This leads the the JACS study researchers to believe certain laws impacted suicide rates while others didn’t. Stand your ground laws were more prevalent in states with looser gun legislation and created to protect gun owners, while negligent storage and waiting period laws were more common in states with stricter gun regulation, and were intended to protect vulnerable populations like kids and those with mental health issues, according to the researchers. States with the highest firearm-related deaths among children over the past 20 years were ones without safe storage laws, according to a 2023 study published in the Journal of Surgical Research. Other studies also found lax gun laws lead to an increase in pediatric suicides, including research from Stanford University that found states with strict firearm laws had lower gun-related deaths among minors, including suicides.
Further Reading
Firearms Now No. 1 Cause Of Death For U.S. Children — While Drug Poisoning Enters Top 5 (Forbes)
