Guns Send 20 Kids to the Hospital Each Day, Study Shows
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David De Lossy/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Firearm injuries were already known to be the second leading cause of death among children in the U.S. But now, a new study out Monday provides more insight into the threats guns pose to kids, showing that they send more than 7,000 of them to the hospital each year.
“This works out to be about 20 U.S. children and adolescents hospitalized each day,” says John Leventhal, a pediatrics professor at Yale School of the Medicine and the lead author of the study.
“About a thousand of those children were less than 15 years of age, some as young as 2, 3, or 4 years of age,” he adds.
More than half of the hospitalizations — 4,500 — are from injuries due to assaults, Leventhal says.
He notes, “The American Academy of Pediatrics reminds everyone that the safest home is a home without a gun in it.”
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