PRO-LIFE?:

Almost 112,000 US children were admitted to hospital suffering gunshot wounds between 2009 and 2013, prompting paediatricians to describe the situation as "a national public health crisis".

The term was used more than a year ago, in a June 2017 article in the journal Hospital Pediatrics, discussing the role of paediatricians in reducing gun-related carnage in the United States.

One of the co-authors of the piece, Shilpa Patel, part of the Children's National Health System, this week is presenting her latest research at the 2018 American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference & Exhibition, in Orlando, Florida, from November 2 to 6.

"Firearm-related injuries are leading causes of unintentional injury deaths in children and adolescents," she and her colleagues concluded in their 2017 report.

"Children are more likely to be victims of unintentional injuries, the majority of which occur in the home, and adolescents are more likely to suffer from intentional injuries due to either assault or suicide attempts.

Since then, the crisis has, if anything deepened. Presenting the latest analysis, Patel is set to tell conference attendees that figures from the US national hospital emergency-room database, known as the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, reveal 111,839 emergency department visits for paediatric firearm-related injuries in the four years starting 2009.

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