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Abstract
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Accidental deaths of children that are caused by superficially benign objects such as passenger cars, curtain cords, and even peanuts are subject to risk-reduction legislation. But deaths of children from gunshot wounds are different. Guns are designed to be lethal — death is not some unfortunate complication.
The United Kingdom and the United States have both suffered horrific school massacres, leading people to seek both explanations and preventive legislation. However, deliberation over laws limiting access to guns ought to focus on the background prevalence of gunshot wounds among children rather than exceptional events.
We compared information from a database of pediatric intensive care units in the United Kingdom (2004 through 2011) with a data set regarding traumatic brain injury in the United States (1988 through 1999). We found that in the United Kingdom, of 167,000 children admitted to the hospital, 11 had gunshot wounds and 3 died, whereas in the United States, of 98,203 children admitted to the hospital, 7.7% had gunshot wounds and more than 5000 died.
Despite differences between the data-set populations (all critically ill patients 16 years of age or younger with any type of injury in the United Kingdom vs. all patients 21 years of age or younger with traumatic brain injury for whom discharge codes were recorded at U.S. centers), the fact that the total U.K. population is less than one fifth the size of the U.S. population, and the omission of data regarding prehospital deaths, there are noteworthy differences: 1.4 hospital admissions for gunshot wounds per year (in the United Kingdom) versus 1.9 per day (in the United States), and an average interval between deaths from gunshot wounds of 2 to 3 years versus 18 hours. The level of access to firearms correlates with the rate of deaths from gunshot wounds both internationally and among U.S. states. No other cause of sudden death in children would be tolerated without analysis and regulation to mitigate it.
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Language: en |