Data lacking to track child shootings nationwide
Tracking how children become involved in unintended shootings across the country is not an easy task.
States keep statistics on children injured or killed by gunfire, but tracking how many times the trigger is pulled by a child is not routine. Doing this, experts say, could provide a better picture of the overall problem of unintended shootings by minors, such as the one that critically injured a 2-year-old Wilmington, Del., boy Tuesday morning.
The child, identified by neighbors as A.J., remained in critical condition Wednesday after shooting himself in the head with a handgun the day before inside his family's townhome, police said.
"If all you have is information on the victim, which is basically what the death certificate provides, then you are missing out on an awful lot of risk factors that involve the person who pulls the trigger," said Jon S. Vernick, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore.
There are more than 30,000 gun deaths nationally, including suicides, homicides, accidents and undetermined deaths, Vernick said. As a nation trying to bring that number down, Vernick said it would be helpful to know what works and what doesn't.
"Without the data, it's much much harder to evaluate whether interventions are effective or not effective," he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2002 launched the National Violent Death Reporting System. The system combines data from death certificates, medical examiner and police reports, from 32 states. Delaware is not among the states.
By combining these reports, Vernick said experts can put together information that one can't get from death certificates, such as the characteristics not only of the victim, but of the shooter and the weapon involved.
The system's data provides details on demographics, such as age, income and education; the method of injury; the relationship between the victim and the suspect; and information about circumstances such as depression, financial stressors or relationship problems.
It also gathers data on all mechanisms of violent injury such as poisonings and blunt force trauma.
The CDC system can work like the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a nationwide census that provides yearly data regarding fatal injuries suffered in motor vehicle traffic crashes. That system collects information about the driver, the passengers, the car, the roadway, even the weather.
"We don't have anything comparable to that for deaths by gunfire, at least not that covers all 50 states," Vernick said.
Some question whether this is an appropriate function of the CDC.
"One wonders what the CDC is doing with this type of thing, when it's their job to be dealing with disease and this isn't a disease," said John Sigler, president of the NRA-affiliated Delaware State Sportsmen's Association.
Because he did not know the facts of Tuesday's shooting, Sigler said did not want to comment on the matter.
"All I can say is: God bless the youngster and God bless the family. Because this is a huge tragedy," he said.
He said one of the things the NRA exists to do is train and educate. The group has a gun safety program for children, kindergarten through fourth grade, with the simple message of: "Stop! Don't touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult."
"It's all about education and training," he said. "There are literally probably a dozen training courses that folks could avail themselves of if they would like to make sure that they are fully confident and fully prepared to be responsible gun owners."
More than 55,000 Americans died because of homicide or suicide in 2011, Dr. Daniel M. Sosin, acting director of CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said in a statement last month when the program expanded from 18 states.
"That's an average of more than six people dying a violent death every hour," Sosin said. "This is disheartening, and we know many of these deaths can be prevented."