Dorothy R. Novick is a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a scholar with CHOP’s Center for Violence Prevention.
Over 5,000 youths suffered gunshot wounds in 2020. A quarter of them did not survive. More youths under 17 years old died by gunfire last year than ever recorded, and the data for 2021 looks much the same.
As primary care pediatricians, we bear witness to the devastation. It drives us to be part of the solution and focus on preventive strategies that keep children out of the line of fire.
No words can describe a mother’s expression when she comes for her children’s care, and there is one less child for me to see. The loss of a child destroys not only family members, but also friends, schools and communities. I have been in practice for 25 years. I see how trauma persists and washes down over the next generation.
I do my best to offer empathy and support, but it never feels like enough. My training — the crux of my entire career — is centered around prevention.
We have done it with other kinds of injury. We’ve learned how to keep children safe inside cars, on bikes and while sleeping in cribs. We do this by identifying risk factors and intervening before our patients are hurt. We counsel families, advocate for policies that bolster our recommendations and spread the word through public-health messaging.
We can do it with guns.
To be sure, it is no easy task. Firearm ownership is one of the most polarizing issues of our time. But that doesn’t mean we throw up our hands. To the contrary, it means we try harder.
The factors putting so many children at risk for gun deaths and injuries during covid-19 are wide and interrelated. Children suffer gunshots in three different ways: They harm themselves or others unintentionally, they become suicidal or they fall victim to violent crime. All three have risen throughout the pandemic. School closures have left young children home with minimal supervision; social isolation has fueled adolescent depression; and economic instability has led to historic levels of violent crime. Each scenario becomes more lethal when guns are involved. And there are more guns where my patients live and play than ever before.
Firearm sales have skyrocketed since the pandemic took hold. Even before covid-19, 13 million children lived in a home with at least one gun. Then 2020 saw a 64 percent increase in firearm sales. More than 20 million guns were sold last year, and 6 million more left the shelves in early 2021. Every month seems to set a new record. This country has more guns than people.
Firearms are permanent fixtures. They do not easily break or decompose, and they are difficult to dispose of. The only way to protect children from these weapons is to store them safely away.
That means keeping firearms locked, unloaded and separate from ammunition. Studies show safe firearm storage protects children from unintentional shootings and suicide and can reduce community violence by preventing firearms from being lost and stolen.
As health-care providers, we can play a unique role by counseling about safe firearm storage. Some worry firearms are too sensitive a subject, but we are used to having conversations about personal aspects of peoples’ lives. When we approach safe storage collaboratively and without judgment, when we center the conversation around child safety and when we steer clear of politics, we find patients and families open and receptive.
Studies show we have the greatest impact when we also offer safety devices alongside this counseling. At Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where I practice, we now couple safe storage education with gun lock distribution.
We are making every effort to move the needle on safe firearm storage. But as with other causes of injury we’ve worked to prevent, we need the weight of policies and laws behind us.
We need every state in the nation to enact stringent safe storage, or “child access prevention” laws. These laws require gun owners to store firearms securely, keeping them away from children and other unauthorized users. Safe storage laws work. States with them see 59 percent fewer firearm fatalities among children. People listen more attentively when I can say, “Not only is it safer, it’s also the law.”
Public-health messaging, too, is more effective with the law behind it. Just like billboards that warn us to “click it or ticket” and “drive sober or pull over,” I dream of memorable slogans that make securing firearms as natural as buckling seat belts.
Firearm injuries have surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of death for our nation’s children. We can prevent them. We need every lethal weapon under lock and key.
Read more:
