Child access prevention legislative language and pediatric firearm injury rates

Abstract

Backgroud: Firearm injuries are a significant public health problem facing young people in the USA. In 2015, a total of 16 878 people under 19 years old were injured or killed by firearms. To reduce firearm injuries, 29 states and Washington, DC have enacted child access prevention (CAP) legislation. CAP legislation is intended to reduce the likelihood of a minor obtaining a weapon and subsequent injury or death. This study evaluates the impact of CAP legislation based on language of the legislation, specifically it evaluates a relationship of the legal threshold of liability and the number of firearm injuries per capita of minors.

Methods: Data were collected from the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System for patients less than 19 years of age who presented to emergency departments with firearm injuries in 2016. The Giffords Law Center classification was used to group states into three categories (strong/weak/no CAP) based on CAP language. Differences of firearm-related injury rates per capita were assessed.

Results: When controlling for population, states with CAP legislation had a 22% decrease in firearm injuries per capita compared with states without CAP legislation. States with 'strong' CAP legislation had a 41% decrease in firearm injuries per capita compared with states with 'weak' or no CAP legislation when controlling for population.

Conclusions: States with 'strong' CAP legislation had lower pediatric firearm injury rates per capita, but more complete data and further studies are needed to evaluate this relationship as well as other factors that may impact firearm injury rates.

Keywords: adolescent health; child health; forensic medicine; preventive medicine.