Gun Deaths In Children Are Often In The Line Of Fire Of Domestic Violence

Death due to gun violence remains the number one cause of accidental fatality in children and young adults. A study published in the November issue of Pediatrics determined that a large number of these deaths take place in the setting of adult intimate partner violence in the home, or IPV.

The study, carried out at the Centers for Disease Control’s Division of Violence Prevention, reviewed child homicides between 2003 and 2020 in the U.S. They reported over 11,000 deaths during that period in children ages 0 to 17 years. Of those, nearly 6,000 were due to firearms, and of the firearm deaths, nearly 700 occurred in the setting of IPV, where a child was in the line of fire of one partner shooting and killing the other.

Most of the deaths in children included the fatal shooting of a domestic partner, over 90% of which was the child’s mother. In prior studies, over half of gun-related homicides related to IPV coincided with suicide of the perpetrator. The group of children killed by guns due to IPV also included teens who themselves were shot and killed by a dating partner, past or present.

The study authors reviewed data from the National Violent Death Reporting System between 2003 and 2020. Those gun deaths under the umbrella of IPV tended to include situations such as child custody disputes, relationship dissolution (impending or existing divorce and/or separation), and presence of domestic partner restraining orders. In review of the data overall, the majority (80%) of gun-related deaths in children were in adolescent boys. But a substantial number, nearly 700, of childhood gun deaths are in the setting of domestic partner violence. Victims of IPV-related gun deaths were younger (average of nine years old) compared to non-IPV-related childhood gun deaths (average of just under 15 years old).

Overall, childhood firearm deaths were more likely to be due to either the mother’s male partner and/or the child’s father in the presence of IPV, compared to a child’s death due to the mother firing a gun. And while boys are much more likely to be the subject of gun-related deaths than girls, girls were six times more likely to have an IPV-related gun death than another source of violence such as accidental hunting accident, street violence, or a school shooting.

The authors conclude that, not only is firearm death preventable in both children and adults, but that intimate partner violence, homicide and homicide/suicide can often lead to corollary injury and death of children in the home. The Supreme Court is currently deciding whether gun ownership should be restricted from those with a domestic violence history. This decision is expected to be released by next June, and may reverse some the prior expansion in gun ownership decided by the Supreme Court in June 2022. In the wake of continued mass shootings, including in Lewiston, Maine last month and in Cincinnati, Ohio just yesterday, the current study demonstrated that children in the home setting of domestic violence and IPV are at significant risk of gun-related death.