Deidre McPhillips
CNN.org
Originally posted 7 Feb 24
More children die from guns than anything else in the United States, but relatively little funding is available to study how to prevent these tragedies.
From 2008 to 2017, about $12 million in federal research awards were granted to study pediatric firearm mortality each year – about $600 per life lost, according to a study published in Health Affairs. Motor vehicle crashes, the leading cause of death among children at the time, received about $26,000 of research funding per death, while funding to study pediatric cancer, the third leading cause of death, topped $195,000 per death.
By 2020, firearm deaths in the US had reached record levels and guns had surpassed car crashes to become the leading cause of death among children. More than 4,300 children and teens died from guns in 2020, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – a 27% jump from 2017, and a number that has only continued to rise. But federal dollars haven’t followed proportionately.
Congress has earmarked about $25 million for firearm injury prevention research each year since 2020, split evenly between the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. Even if all of those dollars were spent on studies focused on pediatric deaths from firearm injury, it’d still be less than $6,000 per death.
The article highlights the critical need for increased research funding to prevent firearm-related deaths among children and teens in the U.S. Despite guns becoming the leading cause of death in this demographic, research funding remains insufficient. This lack of investment hinders the development of life-saving solutions and policies to address gun violence effectively. To protect our youth and combat this pressing issue, substantial and sustained funding for research on gun violence prevention is imperative.
Or, we could have more sensible gun laws to protect children and adolescents.
