Children die more often from weapons than from cancer

Children die more often in the United States through weapons than through cancer: Pediatricians warn of increasing gun violence

01/08/2013

There is great concern among American paediatricians - the reason: Children and teenagers in the US are now more frequently victims of armed violence than of cancer. Judith and Sean Palfrey, both practicing pediatricians at the Children's Hospital in Boston, came to this shocking conclusion.

Study brings dramatic numbers to light
According to the physicians, in 2010, 6,570 young people under the age of 24 were killed in connection with firearms, which would mean an average of seven victims per day. In order to „Injuries caused by weapons cause twice as many deaths as cancer, five times as many as heart disease and fifteen times as many as infections“, said the two doctors in a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The numbers are alarming in view of the significantly lower number of victims of cancer, because cancer remains the most common life-threatening disease in the Western world for children and adolescents and ends in the US every year for some 3,000 young people with death.

Weapons play the key role in suicide among teenagers
However, the free access to and possession of weapons in the US not only carries a high risk of being a victim of armed violence, but also has an influence on children and adolescents, according to the Palfreys: „Depressed young people can try to commit suicide. Less than 5 percent of such drug trials are deadly, but 90 percent of the time firearms are used.“

Demand of the experts: change the handling of weapons
Therefore, the two paediatricians are calling for a rigorous change in the handling of weapons in the US - especially in light of the recent rampage of a 20-year-old boy who lost 26 people in a primary school in Newton. Because only in this way could the authors „our needlessly deceased children will be honored and our nation will prevent the loss of valuable life“.

So the Palfreys demand for one thing „the reintroduction of the offensive and army weapons, smaller magazines, and limited ammunition capabilities“, on the other hand, it is clearly positioning itself against the National Firearms Association: "Instead of increasing the number of weapons in public, as recently suggested by the National Rifle Association, we should set the goal of reducing the number of weapons in our homes and communities“, so the experts.

It was time, the two continue, to take the opportunity, „to protect our children from firearms injuries, as other countries have done. Doctors, teachers, city and state officials, as well as gun owners, families and young people need to come together with creative and meaningful commitment to improve society.“ (Sb)

Picture: Martin Schemm