[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 30 (Friday, March 15, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1969-S1970]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       STATES WITH MORE GUNS HAVE MORE GUN DEATHS AMONG CHILDREN

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. President, a few weeks ago the Harvard School of 
Public Health released a study that shows children are dying from gun 
violence at higher rates in States with higher levels of gun ownership. 
The study, ``Firearm Availability and Unintentional Firearm Deaths, 
Suicide, and Homicide among 5 to 14 Year Olds,'' appears in the 
February 2002 issue of The Journal of Trauma.
  According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention statistics 
cited in the study, only motor vehicles and cancer claim more lives 
than do firearms among children 5 to 14 years old. The Harvard study 
presents evidence of a correlation between the level of gun ownership 
in a State and the number of gun related deaths on the State level. The 
study asserts that children living in the five States with the highest 
levels of gun ownership were more than 16 times more likely to die from 
unintentional firearm injury, almost seven times more likely to die 
from firearm suicide and more than three times more likely to die from 
firearm homicide than children in the five States with the lowest 
levels of gun ownership.
  Most fatal firearm accidents and suicides occur when children and 
teens discover firearms at home that have been left loaded or 
unsecured. The Child Access Prevention Act is a common sense approach 
that attempts to address one part of this problem. This legislation 
would hold adults who fail to lock up a loaded firearm or an unloaded 
firearm with ammunition accountable. Adults who fail to lock up their 
firearm and ammunition would be held liable if the weapon was taken by 
a child and used to kill or injure another person or him or herself. 
The bill would also increase the penalties for selling a gun to a 
juvenile and create a gun safety education program that includes 
parent-teacher organizations

[[Page S1970]]

and local law enforcement. The legislation is similar to a State law 
which President Bush signed into law during his tenure as the Governor 
of Texas. The Harvard study only reinforces my support for this 
legislation.

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