Preventing Unintentional Firearm Injury & Death Among Youth: Examining the Evidence
Despite significant national attention to shootings involving children, and resulting calls for gun reform, little has been done to address gaps in research or promote policies that can help prevent child injury and death from firearms.
As of 2018, firearm-related injury remained the second-leading cause of death for children and in 2019 alone, there were more than 300 unintentional shootings by children. As pediatric health experts who see the consequences of firearm injury firsthand, we recognize the urgency for action on this issue and have identified unintentional firearm injury and death as an important starting point for intervention.
This Evidence to Action brief, co-authored by PolicyLab and the Center for Violence Prevention, evaluates existing research on firearm legislation and identifies gaps, highlights priorities for future research funding and scholarship, and proposes evidence-based, public health approaches to prevent unintentional firearm injury and death in children and teens.
Read our accompanying policy brief that builds out recommendations for research to determine which policies work to prevent firearm injury among youth and identifies policies that have enough evidence behind them to warrant immediate action.