Injury Statistics and Incidence Rates

Firearms - injury statistics and incidence rates

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The following statistics were are the latest available from the National Safe Kids Campaign:

Injury and death rates

Approximately 1,800 children, ages 14 and under, are treated annually in hospital emergency rooms for unintentional firearm-related injuries.
In 1999, 88 children, ages 14 and under, died from unintentional firearm-related injuries; more than half of those children were between the ages of 10 and 14.
Nine times as many children die from unintentional firearm-related injuries in the US than in the next 25 industrialized countries combined.
In 2000, non-powder gun-related injuries (for example, BB guns or pellet guns) sent more than 8,400 children to hospital emergency rooms for treatment.

Where and when

Most unintentional firearm-related deaths among children occur in or around the home; 50 percent at the home of the victim, and 40 percent at the home of a friend or relative.
The presence of a firearm in the home increases the risk of unintentional firearm-related death among children (especially if the firearm is loaded and kept unlocked).
Most unintentional firearm-related child deaths involve guns that were loaded and accessible, and occur when children play with the gun.
Up to one-half of firearm owners keep their firearms loaded and ready for use some of the time.
Most unintentional shootings among children occur in the late afternoon, on the weekend, during summer months and during the holiday season when children are most likely to be unsupervised.
Rural areas have higher incidences of unintentional firearm-related injuries, as well as higher rates of firearm ownership.

Who

Approximately 3.3 million children in the US live in households with firearms that are, at times, kept loaded and unlocked.
Boys are more likely to suffer unintentional firearm-injuries or die from an unintentional shooting than girls. More than 76 percent of children ages 14 and under who die from unintentional shootings are boys.
African-American children, ages 14 and under, are twice as likely to die from an unintentional shooting than Caucasian children.
Children living in the South are five times more likely to die from unintentional shootings than children living in the Northeast.
As many as 75 to 80 percent of first and second graders know where their parents' gun is kept.
Some 3-year-olds are strong enough to pull the trigger of many handguns.