Sep 28, 2025 11:21 PM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1099852
INTRO: Nearly one-quarter of child and adolescent victims of firearm homicide were killed in their own homes from 2020-2021, including nearly two-thirds of child victims aged 12 and under, UCLA-led research finds.
The findings, to be published Sept. 26 in the peer-reviewed JAMA Surgery, also found that rates of in-home firearm homicide have more than doubled among children and adolescents since 2010. They found that these cases were often linked with intimate partner violence and child abuse. Parents were the most common assailants for these homicides.
These data suggest that Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), also known as red flag laws, domestic violence-related relinquishment firearm laws, and potential policies linking child abuse investigations with firearm relinquishment may be potential tools to protect children.
While mass shootings and community gun violence involving child and adolescent victims tend to garner the most attention, pediatric firearm homicides in the home remains understudied despite representing a major cause of child and adolescent mortality, said Dr. Jordan Rook, a resident in General Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study’s lead author. The researchers sought to fill that gap with a look at the factors associated with these deaths.
“This research shows that traditional home-based firearm injury prevention like safe storage such as locking guns away, may not be enough to prevent many of these tragic cases,” Rook said. “Instead, policies that address risk factors for in-home homicide like intimate partner violence and child abuse, and which remove firearms from high-risk households, may be effective prevention strategies. This will be the focus of our future research.” (MORE - details, no ads)
INTRO: Nearly one-quarter of child and adolescent victims of firearm homicide were killed in their own homes from 2020-2021, including nearly two-thirds of child victims aged 12 and under, UCLA-led research finds.
The findings, to be published Sept. 26 in the peer-reviewed JAMA Surgery, also found that rates of in-home firearm homicide have more than doubled among children and adolescents since 2010. They found that these cases were often linked with intimate partner violence and child abuse. Parents were the most common assailants for these homicides.
These data suggest that Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), also known as red flag laws, domestic violence-related relinquishment firearm laws, and potential policies linking child abuse investigations with firearm relinquishment may be potential tools to protect children.
While mass shootings and community gun violence involving child and adolescent victims tend to garner the most attention, pediatric firearm homicides in the home remains understudied despite representing a major cause of child and adolescent mortality, said Dr. Jordan Rook, a resident in General Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study’s lead author. The researchers sought to fill that gap with a look at the factors associated with these deaths.
“This research shows that traditional home-based firearm injury prevention like safe storage such as locking guns away, may not be enough to prevent many of these tragic cases,” Rook said. “Instead, policies that address risk factors for in-home homicide like intimate partner violence and child abuse, and which remove firearms from high-risk households, may be effective prevention strategies. This will be the focus of our future research.” (MORE - details, no ads)