Gun violence takes Kansas and Missouri kids’ lives. Congress, follow Roy Blunt’s lead

Since the recent tragedies in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, it seems every other day brings another story about an American community ravaged by firearm injuries. As doctors who care for children, seeing the composite photos of these victims acutely reminds us of the patients we see every day in our work. We have witnessed that these families are rightfully shaken and worried in the aftermath of these tragedies.

Today, firearm injuries are the leading cause of death for children in the United States, including in Kansas and Missouri. Every day, children are killed by firearms in their homes and in their communities — in cities and in rural towns — by homicides, suicides, domestic violence and unintentional shootings.

When these children are injured by firearms, our pediatric colleagues in the emergency department and intensive care work diligently to save their lives. Afterward, we help the patients and their families pick up the pieces while navigating disabilities and psychological trauma that often persist long after their physical injuries have healed.

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Witnessing this suffering in our own city has motivated our efforts to prevent firearm injuries in children. In this work, we face a harsh reality. While fewer children today die of cancer and motor vehicle crashes than in the past, relative rates of pediatric firearm mortality have increased a staggering 29% nationally since 2019. What has led to this discrepancy?

The National Institutes of Health reports spending $664 million in 2021 on pediatric cancer research. In contrast, spending on firearm research by the NIH and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention combined in 2022 is expected to be $25 million, just 3.7% of the NIH budget to research pediatric cancer.

In 1996, U.S. funding toward firearm injury prevention largely dried up as a result of a provision in an annual funding bill discouraging the CDC and NIH from pursuing it. Subsequently, few researchers were able to continue studying what works to keep our kids safe. Denying funding for such a significant and urgent public health problem has set us back decades on reducing these injuries and deaths in children.

Change is difficult, and what topic is more polarizing than firearms? But our experiences have taught us that Midwesterners are reasonable people, open to what works. The consistent message we hear from firearm owners is this: Nobody wants these preventable tragedies to occur. Figuring out the best ways to prevent them is the challenging part. We must first better understand what contributes to these firearm injuries, and ultimately what can be done to prevent them. We have some data, and we need more to know which changes will lead to the most lives saved. Current funding is grossly inadequate to address this momentous problem. Not only are we losing children daily, but we also have a society of children with mounting anxiety that increases with each shooting.

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Lawmakers such as Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, who is a leader on the panel that determines gun violence research funding, should be applauded for their part in restarting this critical investment two years ago with a $25 million investment split between the CDC and NIH. But more funding is desperately needed to match the scale of the problem in our community and nationwide.

We hope Sen. Blunt and other lawmakers will agree to the request of the American Academy of Pediatrics and other national public health groups by appropriating a combined $60 million in firearm violence research to the CDC and NIH in 2023.

We simply have not invested enough resources to fight this cause of death that is claiming the lives of more than 4,000 children each year. We invite you to urge your legislators to invest in the safety of our children with a commitment of $60 million for 2023. Our children depend on us to keep them safe, and this is the first step.

Kristyn Jeffries is a pediatrician practicing in Kansas City. Her research is focused on addressing disparities in pediatric injuries, including firearm injuries. She co-authored this with Shayla Sullivant, a child psychiatrist practicing in Kansas City. Her research is focused on preventing youth suicides through safe storage of firearms and medications.