Despite increased concerns about rising gun deaths among children, new research found that the number of teenagers who have handguns has gone up.
The study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, found that Florida adolescent general handgun carrying increased by 65%, from 3.7% to 6.0%, from 2002 to 2022. Females, middle school-aged teens and white students were among the groups that most substantially contributed to the increase.
“These findings indicate the need to specifically tailor earlier prevention strategies focused on handgun access and carrying toward female and middle school students, with ongoing attention to rural and male adolescents across racial and ethnic identities, who still have the highest prevalence of carriage after a 20-year period,” the authors wrote.
Researchers used data from the Florida Youth Substance Abuse Survey, a cross-sectional survey of Florida middle and high school students. In total, more than 700,000 student respondents were analyzed.
Though general handgun carrying went up, carrying in school decreased by 60%, from 1.1% to 0.4%, according to the study. There was also a 39% decrease in favorable attitudes toward school carrying, the study found.
The authors noted that both these decreases initially seemed contradictory, as school shootings have increased in the past 25 years.
“Ongoing research should explore factors influencing regional and sociodemographic differences in these trends, such as the increases in school safety measures (eg, controlling access to buildings, requiring visitors to sign in, using security badges) or increases in the presence of security or law enforcement officers,” the authors wrote.
They also noted the study’s limitations, including the reliance on self-reporting, which can introduce bias.
Firearms are the leading cause of death among children and teenagers in the United States, with a steep increase in ages 15 to 19 starting in 2020. Nonfatal firearm injuries among children under age 18 also increased 113.1% from 2011 to 2021, another recent study found.
A study published last month in JAMA Pediatrics found gun deaths among children rose in states with lax firearm laws, with certain states seeing a jump in pediatric gun deaths after amending their firearms restrictions. Meanwhile, in the states that had the most restrictive laws, deaths remained stable or, in some cases, there were fewer pediatric gun deaths.
