GunsExperts Document the Lack of Research on Youth Firearm Injury
A national research team has just published the largest-ever examination of the state of research on all aspects of youth firearm injury - whether intentional, unintentional, or self-inflicted. The bottom-line conclusion: Far more research, and better research, is needed on children, teens and the prevention and aftermath of firearm injuries and deaths. If translated into action, such new knowledge could help reduce death and injury rates, and other effects.
A century ago, if a child or teenager died, an infectious disease was the most likely cause.
A half century ago, if a child or teenager died, the most common reason was injuries from an automobile crash.
Today, if an American child or teenager dies, firearm-related injuries and automobile crashes are almost equally likely to be to blame.
Research on everything from vaccines to seatbelts has changed the odds for children and adolescents, and the rate of crash-related deaths continues to drop. But research on firearm injuries has been lacking.
Now, experts have released the largest-ever examination of the state of research on all aspects of youth firearm injury — whether intentional, unintentional or self-inflicted.
The bottom-line conclusion: Far more research, and better research, is needed on children, teens and the prevention and aftermath of firearm injuries and deaths. If translated into action, such new knowledge could help reduce death and injury rates, and other effects.
The papers that lead to this conclusion make up the entire new issue of the Journal of Behavioral Medicine. Nearly all the papers in it come from researchers from across the U.S. who make up the Firearm Safety Among Children and Teens consortium funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Each of the papers in the issue focuses on firearm injury and violence as a public health issue — just as infectious diseases and automobile safety have come to be been seen in decades past.
Rebecca Cunningham, M.D., co-directs FACTS and is interim vice president for research and an emergency medicine physician at the University of Michigan. “Firearm injuries and deaths have the potential to be understood much the same way as many other public health threats have been understood, using scientific methods,” she says. “Much more work is clearly necessary.”
Cunningham and her U-M colleagues Patrick Carter, M.D., and Marc Zimmerman, Ph.D., who co-direct FACTS, wrote an overview of FACTS for the new special issue.
The research reviews done by FACTS members cover five key areas. Here are some of their findings and recommendations:
