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It shouldn't take a school shooting or an inner-city neighborhood shooting to make us realize that American children are more at risk from firearms than the children of any other industrialized nation. In one year, firearms killed no children in Japan, 19 in Great Britain, 57 in Germany, 109 in France, 153 in Canada, and 5,285 in the United States.[1]
In the United States, young children die or are badly injured because their parents or other gun owners don't store their firearms properly, and children find loaded guns and use them unintentionally on themselves or other children. Older children are more at risk from horseplay with available guns, while teenagers use guns for impulse suicides and for crime. All are vulnerable to getting caught in the crossfire from guns used in domestic violence and in crime. Meanwhile, the gun lobby opposes every common-sense measure to reduce the accessibility of firearms to kids, from Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws to the mandatory sale of trigger-locks or childproof, "personalized" guns. Although the National Rifle Association (NRA) insists that the entertainment industry bears responsibility for exposing children to violent images, it refuses to accept responsibility for providing children with both the means and the ideology to hurt themselves and other people.
The Problem
As the rate of gun violence dramatically increased during the 1980s and early 1990s, American children paid the price. From 1984 to 1994 the firearm death rate for 15-19 year olds increased 222% while the non-firearm homicide death rate decreased almost 13%. While deaths from gunfire have been decreasing since 1994, firearms are still expected to overtake motor vehicle accidents as the leading cause of death among American children.
Cars do kill children: so do poorly-made toys and swimming pools and dozens of common household items. But of all the thousands of products with which children have contact, only one - firearms - are completely exempt from consumer protection regulations. Back in 1972, when the Consumer Product Safety Commission was created, the gun lobby's political power ensured that the one product that is specifically designed to cause death and injury remained exempt. Thus, most handguns have so little trigger resistance that they can be fired by a three-year old, while many guns fire when dropped on the floor. Many popular semi-automatic handguns lack magazine safety disconnects or load indicators, meaning that children have no way of knowing that a gun that appears unloaded actually has a bullet in the chamber.
Our government recalls or bans hundreds of products when even a few children are killed or injured by a flawed design. Recently, some schools have created "peanut-free zones" in their cafeterias because of the tiny number of children who are highly allergic to peanut products. In 1999, major car manufacturers began installing inside-trunk latches on new cars because 11 children had died the previous year by suffocating in locked car trunks. For years, the gun industry has made their products more and more lethal, instead of devoting any of its profits to the development of a childproof gun, and the industry is absolutely immune to government intervention for its actions. (See Gun Industry Reform)
The gun industry and their mouthpieces at the NRA have fought every reasonable effort to protect children from guns by legislation. At the state and federal level, the gun lobby fights CAP laws which hold a gunowner responsible if a child gains access their unsecured gun. It fights laws that mandate the sale - not the use, just the sale - of trigger locks with new firearms. It opposes raising the age for handgun possession to 21 - the same age at which we permit young people to drink - even though 18- and 19-year olds commit more crimes than any other age group.
And by coaxing hundreds of local governments, schools and youth groups to support its Eddie Eagle program, the NRA ensures that thousands of kids get the message that they shouldn't touch guns, which are for grownups. What Eddie Eagle really does is put responsibility on young children not to touch or play with guns - rather than on grownups for keeping the guns inaccessible. Eddie Eagle also ensures that children learn that using guns is an adult behavior to aspire to - creating new generations of gun-owners and gun purchasers. Not for nothing has Eddie Eagle been called "Joe Camel with Feathers." Despite the fact that there has never been any proof that the Eddie Eagle program is effective at teaching children to stay away from guns, the NRA continues to insist that this public relations program alone will solve the problem of kids and guns.
Kids and Guns: Key Facts
For every child killed with a gun, four are wounded.[2] According to the Centers for Disease Control, the rate of firearm death of children 0-14 years old is nearly twelve times higher in the U.S. than in 25 other industrialized nations combined. The firearm-related homicide rate is nearly 16 times higher for children in the U.S. than in 25 other industrialized countries combined. The suicide rate of children 0-14 years old is twice as high in the U.S. as it is in those same 25 other industrialized countries combined. Interestingly, there is no difference in the non-firearm suicide rate between the U.S. and these other countries. Virtually all the difference is attributable to suicides committed with guns in the U.S.[3] Over 3,500 students were expelled in 1998-99 for bringing guns to school. Of these, 43% were in elementary or junior high school. This means that, in a 40-week school year, an average of 88 children per week nationwide are expelled for bringing a gun in school. And these figures include only the children who get caught.[4] During 1999, 52% of all murder victims under 18 in the U.S. were killed by guns. In 1986, guns were used in 38% of such murders. In 1999, 82% of murder victims aged 13 to 19 years old were killed with a firearm.[5] In 1998, more than 1200 children aged 10-19 committed suicide with firearms. Unlike suicide attempts using other methods, suicide attempts with guns are nearly always fatal, meaning a temporarily depressed teenager will never get a second chance at life. Nearly two-thirds of all completed teenage suicides involve a firearm.[6] In 1998, 3,792 American children and teens (19 and under) died by gunfire in murders, suicides and unintentional shootings.[7] That's more than 10 young people a day.
The Laws
There are very few laws governing children's access to guns. The Brady Law made it illegal for children under age 21 to purchase handguns from licensed dealers, although a loophole still permits 18-21 year olds to purchase handguns from private or unlicensed individuals. The shooters in the Columbine High School massacre used four guns purchased at gun shows, three of which were bought by an eighteen-year-old friend who didn't have to undergo a background check.
Each state has different laws governing the transfer and possession of guns to and by juveniles. Most states permit teenagers to possess long guns, including assault weapons grandfathered by the 1994 assault weapon ban, without adult supervision.
CAP laws have been passed by 18 states. These states hold gun owners criminally liable if children access their unsecured weapons and hurt themselves or someone else. In 1997, the Journal of the American Medical Association published a study showing that accidental deaths of children from firearms decreased 23% in the two years after CAP laws went into effect.
Click here to read more information on the laws affecting children and guns in your state.
Endnotes
- Embassies and foreign reporting agencies, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, unpublished data from the Vital Statistics System, 1997.
- Annest, JL, et.al. "National estimates of nonfatal firearm-related injuries: beyond the tip of the iceberg," Journal of the American Medical Association, 1995, 273:1749-1754.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Rates of homicide, suicide and firearm-related death among children – 26 industrialized countries." Morbidity Mortality Weekly Report. 02/07/97; 46:5. 101-105.
- U.S. Department of Education. Report on State Implementation of the Gun-Free Schools Act: School Year 1998-99. October 2000, p. 2.
- FBI Uniform Crime Reports for 1999, table 2.11.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, from the WONDER Injury Mortality Data.
- Unpublished data from the Vital Statistics System, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, 2000.
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