Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study Finds 'Hundreds' Of Child Deaths From Playing With Guns Over 20 Years
Hundreds of young children in the U.S. have been killed playing with guns over the last two decades, according to a study published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vast majority of cases involved guns that were stored unlocked and loaded. The CDC report's authors say their new findings highlight the rising toll taken by accidental gun deaths that could be preventable. (Tin, 12/14)
Children and teens involved in unintentional fatal shootings most commonly found the gun inside or on top of a nightstand, under a mattress or pillow, or on top of a bed, according to a new federal study. (Reed, 12/14)
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President Biden and several other Democratic lawmakers pushed for gun reform on the 11th anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting. “Eleven years ago, the souths of Newtown, Connecticut, and the nation were pierced forever when twenty-six lives were stolen at Sandy Hook Elementary School by a lone shooter,” Biden posted on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, adding that he and the first lady were praying for the families and survivors. (Irwin, 12/14)
The Supreme Court refused, again, to block Illinois’s ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines Thursday. A gun rights group and gun shop owner argue the bans violate their Second Amendment rights and asked the justices to step in on an emergency basis to block enforcement. The plaintiffs made a similar request in the spring, which was rejected. (Schonfeld, 12/14)
When Flint, Mich., announced in September that 68 assault weapons collected in a gun buyback would be incinerated, the city cited its policy of never reselling firearms. ... But Flint’s guns were not going to be melted down. Instead, they made their way to a private company that has collected millions of dollars taking firearms from police agencies, destroying a single piece of each weapon stamped with the serial number and selling the rest as nearly complete gun kits. Buyers online can easily replace what’s missing and reconstitute the weapon. (McIntire, 12/10)
Aaron Hunter is having a tough time pushing himself through a leg workout at a physical therapy appointment in Sarasota. “It burns,” he moaned, lying on a machine that required him to use his legs to thrust his body off a platform. His physical therapist, Whitney Walker, and mom Erica Dorsey encouraged him to keep going. Aaron, 13, was exhausted, but his performance was night and day from this summer, when simply walking was a challenge. Aaron was shot in the head in June. (Colombini, 12/14)