Firearm-Related Deaths Among Children and Adolescents

From 2019 to 2020, firearm-related deaths among children and adolescents increased by almost 30%, making firearms the leading cause of death among young people in the United States. 

One possible explanation for this increase is COVID-19 related changes in schooling mode, increasing the amount of time children and adolescents spent at home, where many are more likely to encounter a loaded and unsafely stored firearm. Compared to pre-pandemic, monthly pediatric firearm-related encounters increased 42% during March 2020 to August 2020 when schools were closed and 23% after schools returned to in-person instruction in Spring 2021. No changes were observed during the period from September 2020 to February 2021, when most districts provided virtual or hybrid instruction.

However, overall changes obscure a divergence in the frequency of firearm injury by race and ethnicity. Although both White and Black children experienced more firearm injuries during the school closure period relative to pre-pandemic conditions, firearm injuries decreased well below the baseline (~45%) following the return to in-person instruction for White children while injuries continued to escalate for Black children.

Evidence suggests that these disparities are the result of differences in firearm ownership and storage practices, and of structural racism, which increases the likelihood that Black adolescents live in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty, unemployment, residential instability, and gun violence.

Vanderbilt's Approach:

This work was led by Dr. Tara McKay, Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society in the College of Arts and Science with team members Dr. Kelsey Gastineau from the Department of Pediatrics and Alan Storrow, Jin Han, and Jesse Wrenn from the Department of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

This project is one of several projects examining firearm injury and death at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.