Researchers Find Thousands of Pediatric Firearm Deaths Linked to More Permissive State Gun Laws

The new study from Mass General Brigham researchers found that since 2011, states with the most permissive gun laws experienced 67 percent more pediatric deaths than expected.

Guns are now the leading cause of death for youth in the United States. Researchers from Mass General Brigham investigated whether firearm mortality rates among U.S. children ages 0-17 changed in the 13 years following a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that applied the Second Amendment to state and local governments. In states with the most permissive firearm laws, they found evidence of 6,029 more pediatric deaths due to firearms than would have been expected based on the existing demographic trends—and more than 1,400 excess deaths in states with permissive firearm laws. Rates remained unchanged or decreased in states with more strict laws. The results are published in JAMA Pediatrics.

“We saw over 7,400 more pediatric deaths due to firearms than would have been expected,” said first author Jeremy Faust, MD, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system. “And when checked against other causes of death, including homicides and suicides not involving firearms, there were not similar changes. This show that differences in firearm laws matters.” 

The study categorized states as either most permissive, permissive, or strict based on gun ownership and use policies, and compared their pediatric firearm mortality rates before the ruling (from 1999-2010) and after the ruling (2011-2023). The researchers also found that existing disparities for pediatric firearm deaths among Black youth increased in permissive states and persisted, but did not increase, in states with more strict laws. The team plans to share their findings with policy makers and stakeholders and hopes to see future research identify which specific policies are most effective.

“Addressing the epidemic of pediatric firearm mortality requires collective action and policy change,” said Onyeka Otugo, MD, MPH, MPA, an author on the study and an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Gun laws truly make a difference for the collective safety of children.”

Authorship: Additional authors include Ji Chen, Shriya Bhat, Miranda Yaver, Benjamin Renton, Alexander Junxiang Chen, Zhenqiu Lin, and Harlan M. Krumholz.

Disclosures: Krumholz reported receiving expenses and/or personal fees within the past 3 years from UnitedHealth, Element Science, Aetna, Reality Labs, Tesseract/4Catalyst, F-Prime, Siegfried and Jensen law firm, Arnold and Porter law firm, and Martin/Baughman law firm; being a cofounder of Refactor Health and HugoHealth; and being associated with contracts through Yale New Haven Hospital from the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and through Yale University from Johnson & Johnson. No other disclosures were reported.

Funding: None.

Paper cited: Faust JS et al. “Firearm Laws and Pediatric Mortality in the US” JAMA Pediatrics DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.1363