Why We Do What We Do!

Guns and Kids

•  Every two hours, a child is killed by a gun, either in a homicide, suicide, or as a result of an unintentional injury (American Academy of Pediatrics)

•  One in every five admissions to pediatric trauma centers in the U.S. is due to gunshot wounds (American Academy of Pediatrics)

•  A gun kept in the home is 43 times more likely to kill someone known to the family than to kill someone in self-defense (American Academy of Pediatrics)

•  More than 1.69 million children under age 18 in the U.S. live in homes with loaded and unlocked firearms. 73 percent of kids under age 10 who live in homes with guns report knowing the location of their parents’ firearms. (Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence)

•  Guns in the home are a leading cause of death for children (Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence)

• The average hospital bill for treating a child wounded by a gunshot is enough to pay for a year of college (Jefferson City MO Police Department statistic)

Guns and Suicide

•  The risk of suicide is five times more likely if a gun is kept in the house (American Academy of Pediatrics)

•  In the U.S., suicide is the second leading cause of death for children age 10-24 (Parent Resource Program, the Jason Foundation)

•  The annual number of gun suicides is significantly higher than that for gun-related homicides (Harvard Injury Control Research Center)
•   States with the five highest rates of gun suicides have gun ownership rates notably higher than the national average (Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence)

•  A child between 10 and 19 commits suicide with a handgun every six hours (Jefferson City MO Police Department statistic)