By Hayden Randolph
TAMPA, Fla. — In 2023, gun violence was the leading cause of death for children in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
An annual report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, Gun Violence in the United States 2023: Examining the Gun Suicide Pandemic, found that a person was killed by a gun every 11 minutes in 2023. Additionally, the report stated that gun deaths in children have risen 106% since 2013.
Hsing-Fang Hsieh, director of evaluation for the University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention, explains why gun violence threatens public health.
“Gun violence is a public health issue because it affects the well-being of entire communities, beyond the influences on individuals,” she said. “When someone is injured or killed by a firearm, it doesn’t just impact that person; it ripples out and harms families, neighborhoods, schools, and even the economy.”
Analyzing the numbers related to firearms, a study from the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology reports that when compared with countries of similar economic development, the United States sees eight times more firearm suicide and 25 times more firearm homicide. The same document calls gun violence in the United States a “public health crisis.”
An epidemic can be defined as “affecting or tending to affect a disproportionately large number of individuals within a population, community, or region at the same time.” Hsieh believes that gun violence fits this definition.
“Gun violence fits the definition of an epidemic in that it spreads within and between communities, causes significant harm, and affects large numbers of people over time,” she said.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reports that out of 65 high-income countries and territories examined, the United States came in seventh for highest firearm homicide rate. Notably, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, both U.S. territories, came in first and fourth.
A study from Rand Health Quarterly found that evidence indicated safe storage laws are the most influential way to prevent gun violence incidents in youth. Hsieh agrees that preventative measures like safe firearm storage to limit accessibility as well as promoting community outreach and improving access to mental health resources could make a difference.
Allie Bond of Rutgers University’s New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center explains the purpose of safe firearm storage.
“Secure firearm storage refers to storing a firearm unloaded, locked, and separate from the ammunition so in a way that it is not able to fire right away,” she said.
A poll from Gallup found that 81% of current and prospective students said that the gun policies of their campus influence their enrollment. Furthermore, the same poll found that a majority of students prefer that their campus enforce gun restrictions. Kenise Long, a senior Criminology and Criminal Justice major at the University of Tampa, states her opinion on the issue.
“I definitely just think there should be stricter laws in place before someone is able to possess a gun,” she said. “I hold a strong stance on assault rifles and assault weapons being banned completely.”
Bond reflects on how many people gun violence affects in the United States.
“Gun violence doesn’t discriminate in anyone,” she said. “It touches everyone’s lives. It touches every race, every gender, every political ideology. So when we think about solutions to gun violence, we need to think about solutions that are going to help everybody as well.”
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Photo courtesy of “March for Our Lives” by Phil Roeder, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.