Firearm Legislation Stringency and Firearm-Related Fatalities among Children in the United States

Abstract Background Firearm-related injuries are the second leading cause of pediatric death in the U.S. We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of both state child access prevention (CAP) laws and gun regulations on pediatric firearm mortality. We hypothesized that states with more stringent firearm legislation had lower pediatric firearm mortality. Study Design We used 2014-2015 firearm mortality data from the Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System, 2014 Brady scores (used to quantify stringency of state gun regulations) and CAP laws. State-level covariates were obtained from government sources including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Department of Education. Spearman rank correlations and linear regression were used to determine the relationship between overall pediatric firearm mortality and gun regulations. We also examined the relationship between gun regulations and firearm related homicides and suicides. Results Annually, there were approximately 2,715 pediatric firearm fatalities among children; 62.1% were homicides and 31.4% suicides. There was a moderate negative correlation between states' firearm legislation stringency and overall pediatric firearm mortality (ρ=-0.66, p Conclusions Strict gun legislation and CAP laws are associated with fewer pediatric firearm fatalities and firearm suicides, respectively, though no such association was identified with pediatric firearm homicides. While more studies are needed to determine causality, state-level legislation could play an important role in reducing pediatric firearm-related deaths.