Study ties stricter gun laws with fewer child gun deaths

Firearm deaths of children and teenagers rose significantly in states that enacted more permissive gun laws after the Supreme Court in 2010 limited local governments’ ability to restrict gun ownership, a new study has found (Source: “Gun Deaths of Children Rose in States That Loosened Gun Laws, Study Finds,” New York Times, June 9).
 
In states that maintained stricter laws, firearm deaths were stable after the ruling, the researchers reported in JAMA Pediatrics, and in some, they even declined.
 
The study examined the 13-year period after the June 2010 Supreme Court ruling that the Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms, applies to state and local gun-control laws. The decision effectively limited the ability of state and local governments to regulate firearms.
 
Nationally, they found that the number of people under 18 who died from firearm injuries in the period after the ruling exceeded the projected figure for that time by about 7,400, with a total of about 23,000 fatalities.
 
But in the nine states with the strictest gun laws, youth firearm deaths did not increase. In four — California, Maryland, New York and Rhode Island — they dropped significantly.
 
Guns are the leading cause of death in the United States for people ages 1 through 17, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.