With the presidential election decided, the country can now look forward to the work that needs to be done to repair our nation and communities. One of the most pressing issues in need of attention is the rising number of shootings. Across the country, shootings have skyrocketed this year, especially in large cities, and even more disturbing are the number of children caught in the crossfire.
The homicide rate in Philadelphia is 38% higher than last year, and by the end of the summer, nearly 100 children under the age of 18 had been shot. Compared with last year, New York City had nearly doubled their shootings and shooting fatalities as of September, with over 50 children shot.
Murder and shooting rates are up nearly 50% in Chicago and in the recent weeks, over 30 people were shot in the span of just a few days. As of October, nearly 50 children in Chicago were victims of firearm violence this year.
As a pediatric emergency medicine physician in Chicago, I feel as if we are watching the next mass shooting unfold before our eyes. We need to take this moment with new White House leadership to make progress on regulating guns for the sake of our children.
Guns are turning into a public health emergency
Firearm injuries (15%) are the second-leading cause of death for US children. Car crashes (20%) are the No. 1 cause of death in children ages 1-19. Yet, federal funding for pediatric firearm injuries is only funded at 3% of what it should be based on its mortality burden (how many deaths can be attributed to this phenomenon) compared with other causes of death. A study in 2017 found that, compared with other leading causes of death, gun violence was one of the least researched in relation to its mortality rate.
Research on the dangers and health consequences of firearms was almost completely banned until recently because of the Dickey Amendment. The amendment, passed in 1996 as part of a larger spending bill and backed by the National Rifle Association, restricted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from funding anything that "advocated or promoted gun control." Many interpreted this directive to include research on gun violence, which effectively led to the shutdown of any meaningful firearms research. We need to make up for lost time. In December 2019, for the first time in 20 years, Congress approved $25 million dollars for gun violence research.
This is a start, but it is not nearly enough.
Prevention efforts also are needed to stop shooting injuries and fatalities to children. Most children's firearm injuries involve guns stored in the home of the victim or that of a friend or relative. An estimated 4.6 million children live in homes with guns that are stored unsafely, unlocked, and loaded.
A recent study found more stringent laws that hold gun owners liable for unsafe storage of firearms were associated with decreased pediatric firearm deaths. Currently, only half of states have laws that regulate any accountability of gun owners for safe firearm storage, and these laws vary in strictness.
The threat of guns is ever-present. We have been bombarded by images of rifle and handgun-toting Trump supporters attempting intimidation at voting sites and protests. These self-proclaimed militiamen are domestic terrorists pushing the normalcy of carrying and flaunting guns in public. These are the images our children absorb. They are images endorsed and propagated by the soon-to-be former president of our country.
The Brady Campaign, a national nonprofit gun control advocacy group, announced that now President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were the strongest gun violence protection ticket in our country's history. Let's take advantage of this momentum to make homes and streets safer for our children and debunk the normalization of deadly firearms in the public imagination.
Restriction of firearm rights is a sensitive topic in the US. There are political implications and emotions not present when we discuss other health issues. However, safe firearm storage reduces pediatric gun injuries and deaths.
When the election has ceased to consume all of our attention and headlines in the next days and weeks, we must get back to work planning for how to protect our children from ongoing gun injuries and violence.
Dr. Sheryl Yanger, a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project, is an assistant professor of pediatrics (emergency medicine) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
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