{"id":5129,"date":"2017-06-21T22:04:52","date_gmt":"2017-06-22T03:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?p=5129"},"modified":"2017-06-21T22:04:52","modified_gmt":"2017-06-22T03:04:52","slug":"parsing-data-childhood-gun-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2017\/06\/parsing-data-childhood-gun-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Parsing the Data on “Childhood Gun Violence”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Pediatrics<\/em> has just released a study on childhood firearms injuries and deaths, and this CNN article is typical of the news coverage.<\/a>\u00a0 Unless you read very carefully, deep into the article, you would get the idea that we are having an epidemic of young children shooting one another.<\/p>\n

(How do I feel about the stories like the one that opens the CNN article? \u00a0As I\u2019ve said on these pages:\u00a0If you aren\u2019t committed to keeping your firearms out of the hands of unauthorized users, you shouldn\u2019t own firearms<\/a>. \u00a0Third-graders are not people who should have unfettered access to firearms. \u00a0Just no. \u00a0No.)<\/p>\n

Now all causes of firearm injury and death should be causes for concern. \u00a0If the CNN story helps parents become more careful about common-sense safety measures, that\u2019s good. \u00a0We need more of that. \u00a0Please be particularly careful about preventing drowning, which is the leading cause of accidental death in children ages 1-4 (390 deaths in 2015) and allowing your children in or near motor vehicles (351 deaths in the 5-9 age range and 412 deaths in the 10-14 age range.) \u00a0 You can find those figures by going to the CDC\u2019s\u00a0Leading Cause of Death Reports<\/em> <\/a>and requesting the age groups and years of interest.<\/p>\n

But if we look at the data from the\u00a0Pediatrics\u00a0<\/em>study <\/a>being cited by CNN and others, we can see that guns are, though a concern, less deadly than either water or automobiles, for children 12 and under. \u00a0Still, we should be careful around all three.<\/p>\n

From a public health standpoint, however, two \u00a0figures from the Pediatrics <\/em>study<\/a>\u00a0leap out:<\/strong>
\n-African American boys being murdered (n=389).
\n-White boys committing suicide (n=404).<\/p>\n

Those two categories alone make up 61% of the firearms deaths among minors.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0causes<\/em> of firearms death matter significantly when considering public policy decisions. \u00a0<\/strong>Consider, for example, the 6,787 deaths by motor vehicles among the 15-24 year old age group in 2015 (CDC<\/a>).\u00a0 What are the causes? \u00a0Texting and driving? \u00a0Drinking and driving? \u00a0Those are issues we respond to quite differently than, say, vehicular homicide, which is again different from suicide. \u00a0Stiff blood alcohol limits and DUI penalties will do virtually nothing to prevent premeditated murder.<\/p>\n

The same is true with firearms. \u00a0Since we know that the bulk of firearms deaths among minors come from two distinct, identifiable risk groups, it is logical that we should target the bulk of our gun-violence prevention efforts at those two risk groups.<\/strong> \u00a0The Pediatrics<\/em> study is astounding in how clearly it confirms what many have long suspected,\u00a0that homicide among African American boys and death by suicide among white boys are two leading public health concerns on which we should focus our attention.<\/p>\n

\"File:Women<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia<\/a> [public domain]<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pediatrics has just released a study on childhood firearms injuries and deaths, and this CNN article is typical of the news coverage.\u00a0 Unless you read very carefully, deep into the article, you would get the idea that we are having an epidemic of young children shooting one another. 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