Children and Firearms: Inevitable Interactions or Needless Calamities?

Pediatric healthcare clinicians and public health advocates can play an important role in harm prevention to decrease intentional and unintentional firearm injuries and deaths in children and youth. Alarmingly, pediatric firearm death rates have increased 20% from 2009 to 2018 in the USA, driven by the 56% increase in pediatric firearm suicide rates. Firearm safety drills in schools have become a routine part of many US public school students’ lives. This has occurred as a result of tragic, well-publicized school shootings, including at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012 and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida in 2018. These school shootings, however, account for only a small number of pediatric firearm deaths and injuries each year. In 2018, children and young adults 0–24 years old accounted for 20% of the 39,740 US firearm deaths. This book will first focus on the epidemiology and risk factors of pediatric firearm injuries and deaths. Then it will address firearm injury prevention with approaches for clinicians, mechanisms for gun safety, and policy. Finally, the book will provide guidance for future interventions, policies, and research. Like other public health epidemics, a multidimensional strategy is essential to address the increasing rates of firearm injuries and deaths. Understanding risk factors and interventions for injury prevention is critical for pediatric clinicians and public health advocates to work together towards decreasing firearm injuries and deaths of US children and youth.