Gun Laws Help Lower Suicides, not Murders, Among Children

July 12, 2024
Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter

Restrictive gun laws can decrease suicide rates among children and teenagers, but they don't seem to lower their risk of being murdered, a new study says.

States with laws requiring safe storage of firearms and mandatory waiting periods had lower suicide death rates among kids younger than 18, researchers report.

However, no gun laws appeared to lower children's risk of being murdered by a firearm, even those that prohibit access for people at risk of harming themselves and others, result show.

"It was surprising to me that no laws appear to be impacting the rates of homicide in children, not even safe access,"said lead researcher Dr. Krista Haines, an assistant professor of surgery and population health sciences at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, N.C. "It's sad and shocking."

For the study, researchers analyzed data on more than 17,000 child firearm deaths that occurred between 2009 and 2020, including more than 6,700 suicides and more than 10,200 murders.

They compared 36 different state-level firearm laws to see if any appeared to reduce or increase the risk of suicide or homicide for children.

The analysis "suggests that we do actually have some laws that work,"Haines said in a news release.

"But there are very few of these laws, and they only appear to work for suicide, not for homicide,"she continued. "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."

Interestingly, "stand your ground"laws that protect people who use guns in self-defense appeared to increase children and teens' risk of suicide, researchers found.

Laws setting minimum ages for possession or purchase of firearms did not significantly reduce suicide death rates, results show.

The U.S. accounts for more than 90% of child firearm deaths worldwide, researchers said in background notes. More studies are needed to understand the risk to kids, they argue.

"This is a very early study, and we need to continue to use this kind of research to advance better policies,"senior researcher Dr. Suresh Agarwal, chief of trauma, acute and critical care surgery at Duke University, said in a news release. "What we have in place now has limited impact, particularly with regard to homicides."

The new study was published July 11 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

More information

KFF has more about child and teen firearm deaths.

SOURCE: Duke University, news release, July 11, 2024

Safety: Child