A new study by Nationwide Children's Hospital researchers shows over 90% of unintentional gun deaths among kids younger than 15 years old are caused by the gun not being stored safely.
Dr. Nichole Michaels and a team of researchers analyzed 10 years of data between 2009 and 2018 on unintentional firearm deaths among children. Among the findings using the National Violent Death Reporting System from the Centers for Disease Control, the study found roughly half of the cases had information available on how the gun were stored. In about 92% of those cases, the firearms were unlocked and unloaded.
Firearm injuries are the leading cause of death for kids in the U.S. since 2020, surpassing car accidents, according to the CDC.
Dr. Michaels said she was struck by how young many of the victims are and how many are young boys starting at the youngest ages in the data. She said people should not keep firearms inside their homes when a child is present, but if they do, it should be stored safely and properly.
"It's safest not to have the firearms in the home, but if for whatever reason, the family is unable or unwilling to remove firearms from the home, then we recommend that they be stored, unloaded and locked away and with the ammunition stored separately," Dr. Michaels said.
When firearm deaths surpassed traffic deaths among U.S. children two years ago, Dr. Michaels said it was shocking.
"When I started working at Children's in 2005, you know, it was that motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of death for kids and when the firearm injuries and deaths kind of took over, I think it just sent a really stark message to all of us," she said.
The study comes as the City of Columbus is actively litigating its own safe storage gun laws.
City Attorney Zach Klein said in a press release Tuesday the research confirms what he's known for a long time, which is that nearly all accidental shootings involving minors are preventable with safe gun storage.
"That’s why it is so important that the city continues to educate the public about the importance of safe storage and to defend our right to enact commonsense requirements that the vast majority of parents and gun owners support," Klein said.
Just this past week, a 2-year-old child in Norwalk, Ohio shot their pregnant mother in back, killing her.
Dr. Michaels said the study did not look at the effectiveness of legislation on reducing these deaths, but if implemented, other studies show they can have an impact.
"Child access prevention laws, laws that penalize adults for allowing children to access firearms, as well as safe storage laws and gun lock requirements, all of those reduce these types of unintentional firearm injuries among kids and also can help to reduce suicides as well," she said.
The city also gives away free lockboxes through the Department of Public Health.
