[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 159 (Friday, November 16, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S11998]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                SOBERING STATISTICS ON CHILDREN AND GUNS

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, I rise to enter into the Record a few facts 
about guns and children. According to the Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention, every 7 hours a child or teen was killed in a firearm-
related accident or suicide in 1999. From 1994-1999, an average of five 
children died every day in non-homicide firearm incidents. In the same 
period, more than 2,100 children were killed in firearm accidents. In 
the 1990s, an average of 1,370 kids committed suicide with a firearm 
each year. More than 150 each year were children under the age of 
fifteen. In 1997, hospital emergency rooms treated four children with 
gun shot wounds for every child killed with a firearm. And a 1997 CDC 
study reported that the overall firearm-related death rate among 
children in the United States who are less than fifteen years old was 
nearly twelve times higher than among children in twenty-five other 
industrialized countries combined.
  These sobering statistics remind us of the importance of 
strengthening our gun laws to limit children's access to guns. I urge 
my fellow Senators to join me in support of meaningful gun safety 
legislation.

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