Regions with stricter firearm laws experience fewer pediatric gun-related injuries
rearm-related injuries are a leading cause of injury and death among children and represent a significant public health concern," says Monika Goyal, M.D., M.S.C.E., director of research in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Children's National and senior study author. "This study provides compelling data that an evidence-based approach to public policy may help to reduce firearm-related injuries among children." The research team extracted data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, the nation's largest such database, and included ED visits from 2009 to 2013 by patients younger than 21. The team excluded emergency visits due to air, pellet, BB or paintball guns because they are not governed by firearm legislation. They used state-level Brady gun law scores to calculate median regional scores as measures of firearm legislation strictness. During the five years covered by the study, there were 111,839 ED visits for pediatric firearm-related injur...