For more than 60 years, social efforts and those of the authorities focused on preventing what was the main cause of death among children and adolescents: injuries caused by automobile accidents. However, since 2017, statistics have shown that the leading cause of death has shifted to firearm injuries. So what do children in the United States die of?
A comparative study by experts from Harvard University and the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital indicates that the main cause of death for children and young between 1 and 24 years of age are no longer car accidents, but firearm-related injuries, and that the efforts of the American society must now focus on preventing this type of fatal incident.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 20 years, between 2000 and 2020, the number of firearm-related deaths among children, adolescents, and young adults increased from 6,998 persons to 10,186, while deaths due to traffic accidents in motor vehicles in 2020 rose to 8,234.
The experts point out that the statistical change is mainly due to the fact that during 60 There have been years of public and health campaigns to prevent car accidents, demonstrating “how a concerted approach to injury prevention can reduce injuries and deaths and, conversely, how a public health problem can be exacerbated in the absence of such attention”, they write.
In their article, the researchers compare the improvements that have been implemented in vehicle safety for prevent accidents, while little has been done to prevent firearm accidents among minors. “In recent years, on the other hand, firearms available to civilians have become more lethal, in part because manufacturers increasingly sell weapons designed for military use,” reads the text published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“There also appears to have been little effort by the arms industry to develop or market customized ‘smart’ weapons. Such weapons can only be fired by the authorized user and therefore should reduce the risk of children inadvertently shooting themselves or others and of adolescents using weapons to commit homicide or suicide.
The specialists affirm that while the policies for driving a car have changed in many states to become stricter, on the contrary “many States have made it easier for children and young adults, as well as adults with criminal records, to have access to firearms. Some states do not require background checks when firearms are purchased from private sellers, such as at gun shows. In recent years, many of the same states have passed laws that allow people to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.”
But the responsibility does not lie solely with the state, as the government The federal government “has provided the firearms industry with partial protection from certain tort claims (i.e., negligence claims alleging that they might have foreseen their product being diverted for criminal use), which has reduced the incentive for industry to help prevent firearm-related deaths.”
Finally, the authors of the article point out that these preventable deaths of children and youth not only have a medical cost, but also a great personal cost for families and communities. “To reverse the trend of rising gun-related deaths among US children, experts and policymakers must be intentional in their efforts to develop and implement a multi-pronged scientific strategy focused on continuous improvement. ”, they conclude.
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