Sample of states shows more children die from accidental shootings than reported

Accidental shooting deaths of children happen much more often than reported because some states don't record the deaths as accidents, Michael Luo and Mike McIntire report for The New York Times. The Times did a study of 259 gun accidents that killed children 14 and under in five states that make the data public — California, Ohio, Georgia, North Carolina, and Minnesota — and in all but Minnesota, there were twice as many accidental killings as reported by federal data. Minnesota had 50 percent more deaths than reported in federal data. (NYT graphics)

"The undercount stems from the peculiarities by which medical examiners and coroners make their 'manner of death' rulings," the Times reports. "These pronouncements, along with other information entered on death certificates, are the basis for the nation’s mortality statistics, which are assembled by the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Choosing among five options — homicide, accidental, suicide, natural or undetermined — most medical examiners and coroners simply call any death in which one person shoots another a homicide."

"The National Rifle Association cited the lower official numbers this year in a fact sheet opposing 'safe storage' laws, saying children were more likely to be killed by falls, poisoning or environmental factors — an incorrect assertion if the actual number of accidental firearm deaths is significantly higher," the Times reports. "In all, fewer than 20 states have enacted laws to hold adults criminally liable if they fail to store guns safely, enabling children to access them." According to the CDC figures, gun accidents were the ninth leading cause of unintentional deaths among children ages 1 to 14 in 2010, with 62 deaths that year. "If the actual numbers are, in fact, roughly double, however, gun accidents would rise into the top five or six." (Read more)