Gun laws lower firearm-related suicides among youth, study shows
New research out of Duke University found that some gun laws can prevent firearm suicides' among children and teens. States with safe storage laws and mandatory waiting periods had lower rates of suicide deaths among children 18 and younger.
These same laws did not decrease the risk of kids being murdered by a firearm, the research found.
Lead researcher Dr. Krista Haines is an assistant professor of surgery and population health sciences at Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina. Haines told USA TODAY there there was a surge in firearm fatalities across the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There's not a lot of interventions out there that we found that worked." said Haines "Looking at what legislation is out there that does actually work, we thought would be a good first start."
Researchers looked at 36 laws in each states to see if any of these gun laws reduced or increased the risk of suicide or homicide among kids 18 and younger.
What types of gun laws prevented deaths?
Child access prevention laws, safe storage laws and mandatory waiting periods decreased the rate of suicide amongst children and teens, researchers found.
"We know that children are getting guns to kill themselves," said Haines. "It's a huge problem."
More laws that control access to guns amongst children and teens can help prevent these deaths.
Firearms are the leading cause of death among children and teens in the U.S.
A look at the statistics: Gun violence is a public health crisis, surgeon general says
Stand-your-ground laws protect people using guns as self defense. Researchers said this law increased children and teens' risk of suicide. At the same time, laws that set a minimum age for possession of guns did not significantly change the suicide death rate.
"We found some laws that do work, and since those do work, we need to figure out ways to encourage states that don't have those laws to try to enact them," said Haines.
Surgeon General call gun violence a national health crisis
Last month, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared gun violence a public health crisis, issuing a 39-page advisory on initiatives to prevent firearm deaths. The advisory said the rate of firearm-related deaths “reached a near three-decade high in 2021."
According to the Surgeon General, more than 48,000 people died by gun violence in 2022 – that's an increase of 16,000 deaths compared to 2010. At the same time, firearm-related suicides have increased by 20%, including a “staggering increase” in such deaths among young people, the advisory noted.
Murthy said gun violence demands a public health approach rather than the polarizing political response.
Gun violence became the leading cause of death in children in 2020 and U.S. adults are worried that they or a loved one will become a victim, according to Reuters. More than half of U.S. adults said that they or a family member experienced a firearm-related incident, according to a 2023 report from KFF, a health policy research and news organization.
How was the research conducted?
Researchers analyzed firearm death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looking at more than 17,000 child gun-related deaths that occurred between 2009 and 2020. Of these deaths 6,700 were suicides and over 10,200 were homicides.
A handgun was used in a majority of youth homicides and suicides, the data shows.
In a press release, Dr. Suresh Agarwal, chief of trauma, acute and critical care surgery at Duke University said, "This is a very early study, and we need to continue to use this kind of research to advance better policies."
Contributing: George Petras, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gun laws lead to less suicides among kids, no impact on homicides
