Youth gun deaths rise in states that relaxed laws

Child gun deaths have surged since a 2010 Supreme Court ruling led some state and local governments to relax their firearm laws, according to a new Mass General Brigham study.

Guns are the leading cause of death for youth in the U.S. but little is known about how firearm laws affect child mortality rates. To investigate, researchers looked at whether gun deaths among youth had changed in the years following a Supreme Court ruling that applied the Second Amendment to state and local governments.

They found in states with the most permissive laws evidence of 6,029 more child deaths due to firearms than would have been expected based on the existing demographic trends — and more than 1,400 excess deaths in states with permissive firearm laws. Rates remained unchanged or decreased in states with stricter laws. The results are published in JAMA Pediatrics.

“We saw over 7,400 more pediatric deaths due to firearms than would have been expected,” said first author Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School. “And when checked against other causes of death, including homicides and suicides not involving firearms, there were not similar changes. This shows that differences in firearm laws matter.” 

The study categorized states as either most permissive, permissive, or strict based on gun ownership and use policies, and compared their pediatric firearm mortality rates before the ruling (from 1999-2010) and after the ruling (2011-2023). The researchers also found that existing disparities for pediatric firearm deaths among Black youth increased in permissive states, and persisted, but did not increase, in states with more strict laws. The team plans to share their findings with policymakers and stakeholders and hopes to see future research identify which specific policies are most effective.

“Addressing the epidemic of pediatric firearm mortality requires collective action and policy change,” said Onyekachi T. Otugo,  an author on the study and an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Gun laws truly make a difference for the collective safety of children.”