• D W Webster and M Starnes.
• Center for Gun Policy and Research, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. dwebster@jhsph.edu
• Pediatrics. 2000 Dec 1;106(6):1466-9.

ContextA previous study estimated that child access prevention (CAP) laws, which hold adults criminally liable for unsafe firearm storage in the environment of children, were associated with a 23% decline in unintentional firearm mortality rates among children.ObjectiveTo reassess the effects of CAP laws and more fully examine the consistency of the estimated law effects across states.DesignA pooled time-series study of unintentional firearm mortality among children from 1979 through 1997. Setting. The 50 states and the District of Columbia.ParticipantsAll children <15 years.Main Outcome MeasuresRates of unintentional deaths attributable to firearms.ResultsWhen the effects of all 15 state CAP laws enacted before 1998 were aggregated, the laws were associated with a 17% decline unintentional firearm death rates among children. The laws' effects were not equal across states. Florida's CAP law was associated with a 51% decline; however, there were no statistically significant aggregate or state-specific law effects in the other 14 states with CAP laws.ConclusionsFlorida's CAP law-1 of only 3 such laws allowing felony prosecution of violators-appears to have significantly reduced unintentional firearm deaths to children. However, there is no evidence of effects in the other 14 states with CAP laws.

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