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There are more than 211 million firearms in civilian hands in the U.S. and children are being injured and killed as a consequence.
To combat this public health epidemic, the AAP developed the STOP (Steps to Prevent Firearm Injury) program in partnership with the National Center to Prevent Handgun Violence (CPHV). The culmination of 36 months of research, the materials contained in the STOP kit provide firearm injury reduction counseling information for pediatric health care professionals.
* Easy access to loaded guns in the home is probably the chief contributing factor in unintentional shootings of children ages 14 and under. Half of the homes in the U.S. contain firearms.
* Approximately 1.2 million latchkey children have access to guns when they come home from school.
* More than 1/3 of all accidental shootings of children occur in the homes of friends
or relatives.
* In a 10 state survey of 11,000 adolescents, 41% of boys and 21% of girls said they could
obtain a handgun if they wanted.
* On an average day, 102 people die in the United States from gunshot wounds, including 14 young people under the age of 20.
* Twice as many children are killed by guns as by cancer.
* New national data indicate that 11% of American children and adolescents who die are shot.
* In recent years, the number of children under the age of 19 receiving trauma care for gunshot wounds has nearly doubled.
* For African American teenagers, firearm homicide is the leading cause of death. But firearm injury and death crosses all cultural boundaries. A 1988 survey of AAP members found that one in six had treated a pediatric gunshot victim.
* Every two hours, someone's child is killed with a gun.
* A gun in the home is a danger to your family. The safest thing to do is to remove the gun from the home. If you choose to keep a gun, empty it out and lock it up.
Last Updated 08/07/04