When we think about gun control groups, the first names to come to mind are probably outfits like Everytown for Gun Safety, March For Our Lives, and Giffords. But it might suprise you to learn that a healthcare provider in New York State is quietly becoming a major player in the anti-gun movement.
Northwell Health has its own Center for Gun Violence Prevention, and regularly pushes news and views with an anti-2A perspective. Most recently the company trotted out research that purports to show those states where gun-involved deaths outnumber traffic-relate fatalities among kids and young adults. But while the gun control fans might have been hoping to name and shame pro-2A states, the data shows that there are plenty of firearm friendly states where the number of gun-involved deaths are far lower than traffic fatalities.
Guns have overtaken vehicles as a leading cause of death for school-aged kids in 22 states, more than half of all states for which there is reliable data.
The widest gaps in gun deaths compared to vehicle deaths have emerged in Louisiana, Illinois, Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Despite Illinois having some of the most stringent gun laws in the country, kids in that state are killed by guns at among the highest rates in the nation. States where vehicle deaths still outpace deaths related to firearms by the largest margins include Montana, Iowa, Idaho, California, and Oregon.
"A public health approach can guide our strategy and actions, as it has done in the past with successful efforts to address tobacco-related disease and motor vehicle crashes," Murthy said in June's declaration.
Across the U.S., a patchwork of state laws has been tied to successfully curbing gun violence to different degrees.
As reporter Dom DeFurio notes, the absence or prevalence of gun control laws doesn't seem to make much of a difference in the gun death rate. Illinois and Maryland have very restrictive gun laws in place, but also have some of the highest rates of child and adolescent gun-involved deaths. Montana, Idaho, and Iowa, conversely, have very few gun control laws, and have some of the lowest rates of juvenile and adolescent deaths involving firearms.
Other pro-2A states where traffic fatalities outpace gun-related deaths for children and adolescents include Florida, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Utah, Nebraska, and Arizona.
Despite that, Northwell Health is still pushing the idea that more gun control laws make for safer states.
Across the U.S., a patchwork of state laws has been tied to successfully curbing gun violence to different degrees.
The gun safety nonprofit Everytown released a study in 2022 measuring the strength of gun regulations by state and comparing it to how many people were killed by firearms. The findings were striking: States with more restrictions had fewer deaths. It ranks California, Illinois, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawai'i, New Jersey, and Maryland high for gun restrictions.
An examination of more than 150 studies measuring the efficacy of various gun safety laws by the nonpartisan RAND Corporation found that not all regulations show evidence of preventing deaths. RAND researchers found that there is significant evidence that child-access prevention laws can effectively combat suicide, unintentional deaths and injury, as well as violent crime.
At a campaign event shortly after the shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia that left four dead, including two teens, Democratic Nominee Harris called for reform: "We've gotta stop it. We have to end this epidemic of gun violence."
As Northwell Health's own study shows, it's not as simple as slapping a few gun control laws on the books and calling the problem solved. I'd argue that when it comes to reducing gun-involved suicides, for instance, access to mental heath treatment plays a much bigger role than, say, child access prevention laws.
Similarly, when it comes to violent crimes involving firearms and juveniles, a functional criminal justice system that provides real consequences in addition to rehabilitative efforts is far more important than whether a state bans so-called assault weapons or requires a permit to purchase a firearm.
It's easy for anti-gun researchers to point to states with low levels of gun ownership like Hawaii and New Jersey as proof that gun control makes a difference. Instead, they should be investigating why states like Montana and West Virginia, which have high rates of gun ownership, have far more vehicle-related deaths than firearm-involved fatalities. Clearly those states are doing something right in terms of protecting kids, while also preserving and strengthening our right to keep and bear arms.
