• Victor Lee, Catherine Camp, Vikram Jairam, Henry S Park, and James B Yu.
• Victor Lee is at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. Catherine Camp, M.P.H., is at the Yale Law School in New Haven, CT. Vikram Jairam, M.D., is at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. Henry S. Park, M.D., M.P.H., is at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology and at the Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy, and Effectiveness Research Center at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT. James B. Yu, M.D., M.H.S., is at the Department of Therapeutic Radiology and at the Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy, and Effectiveness Research Center at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT.
• J Law Med Ethics. 2020 Dec 1; 48 (4_suppl): 67-73.

AbstractFirearm injuries are a significant public health problem. Prior studies have analyzed firearm death data or adult firearm injury data, but few studies have analyzed firearm injury data specifically among youth. To inform the current debate surrounding gun policy in the United States, this study aims to provide an estimate of the immense burden of youth firearm injury and its associated risk factors. Therefore, we performed a descriptive analysis of the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS), the largest all-payer emergency department database in the United States, from January 2006 to September 2015. All patients age < 21 who presented with any diagnosis of firearm-related injuries were included.There were an estimated 198,839 incidents of firearm-related emergency department visits for patients age < 21 from 2006 through 2015. After presenting to the ED, an estimated 11,909 cases resulted in death. The population adjusted rate of firearm-related emergency department visits was highest in the South and Midwest. This study demonstrates the significant burden of firearm injury among youth. Having a reliable estimate of the number of children harmed by firearms each year is a critical tool for policymakers - and may make common-sense gun safety measures more politically possible.

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