Firearm injuries are an all-too-common way of death for children and youth in the United States. As Fowler et al1 report in the current issue, firearm injuries are the third leading cause of death for all children aged 1 to 17 years. Although firearm injury mortality rates for these children declined gradually from 2006 to 2013, they have risen again over the past 2 years, now accounting for over 10% of all deaths among these ages in 2014 and 2015.2 An even grimmer picture appears if we extend the age range through the teen-aged years to age 19, because firearm injury rates rise steeply in late adolescence; among children and youth aged 1 to 19, firearm injuries accounted for over 14% of all deaths in 2015. Thus, more than 1 out of every 7 children aged 1 to 19 who died of anything died of a gunshot wound....
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July 2017
Commentary|
July 01 2017
Confronting the Firearm Injury Plague
Eliot W. Nelson, MD
Department of Pediatrics, University of Vermont Children’s Hospital, Burlington, Vermont
Address correspondence to Eliot W. Nelson, MD, UVM College of Medicine, Pediatric Primary Care, 353 Blair Park Rd, Williston, VT 05495. E-mail: eliot.nelson@uvmhealth.org
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Address correspondence to Eliot W. Nelson, MD, UVM College of Medicine, Pediatric Primary Care, 353 Blair Park Rd, Williston, VT 05495. E-mail: eliot.nelson@uvmhealth.org
POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The author has indicated he has no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: The author has indicated he has no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose.
Pediatrics (2017) 140 (1): e20171300.
Article history
Accepted:
April 18 2017
Citation
Eliot W. Nelson; Confronting the Firearm Injury Plague. Pediatrics July 2017; 140 (1): e20171300. 10.1542/peds.2017-1300
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