Firearm Injuries Saddle Kids With Pain, Psychiatric Issues In Long Term: Study
Perhaps unsurprisingly, researchers found that through a year after surviving a firearm injury, youngsters experience steep rises in pain as well as psychiatric and substance abuse disorders. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is set to tackle whether people accused of domestic violence have a right to carry firearms.
NBC News:
Kids Who Survive Gun Injuries Suffer Increases In Pain, Psychiatric Disorders: Study
Through one year after a firearm injury, children and teens experienced a 117% increase in pain disorders, a 68% increase in psychiatric disorders, including PTSD, anxiety, depression and psychosis, and a 144% increase in substance use disorders relative to the controls. “Our results suggest that the struggles of the survivors on a daily basis to recover, to heal, to get by and make it to the next day is a challenging road,” said Dr. Zirui Song, one of the paper’s authors and a primary care physician and associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School. (Mantel, 11/6)
KFF Health News:
Children Who Survive Shootings Endure Huge Health Obstacles And Costs
Oronde McClain was struck by a stray bullet on a Philadelphia street corner when he was 10. The bullet shattered the back of his skull, splintering it into 36 pieces. McClain’s heart stopped, and he was technically dead for two minutes and 17 seconds. Although a hospital team shocked him back to life, McClain never fully recovered. Doctors removed half his skull, replacing it with a gel plate, but shrapnel remains. (Szabo, 11/6)
The New York Times:
When A Child Is Shot, Trauma Ripples Through Families, Study Finds
With each mass shooting, Americans look to one grim indicator — the number of dead — as a measure of the destructive impact. But damage left behind by gunshot wounds reverberates among survivors and families, sending mental health disorders soaring and shifting huge burdens onto the health care system, a new analysis of private health insurance claims shows. ... “What comes after the gunshot is so often not talked about,” said Dr. Chana Sacks, co-director of the Gun Violence Prevention Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and an author of the new study, published on Monday in the journal Health Affairs. The study, which analyzed thousands of insurance claims, maps out lasting damage to families and communities. (Barry, 11/6)
The Washington Post:
Childhood Trauma May Be Predictor Of Adult Headaches, Researchers Find
People who experienced trauma as a child or adolescent were found to be 48 percent more likely to have serious and recurrent headaches as an adult than were those who had not experienced trauma in their early years, according to research published in the journal Neurology. The finding stemmed from the analysis of data from 28 studies, involving 154,739 people. The researchers categorized traumatic events as either threat-based (such as physical, sexual or emotional abuse, witnessing or being threatened by violence, and serious family conflicts) or deprivation-based (including neglect, financial adversity, parents’ separation, divorce or death, and living in a household with mental illness, alcohol or substance abuse). (Searing, 11/6)
The Supreme Court weighs gun rights and domestic violence —
Politico:
Gun Rights And Domestic Violence Collide At Supreme Court — But Justices Will Be Looking To The Past
The justices will reach for their historian hats again Tuesday as the Supreme Court confronts the latest test of gun rights in modern America: whether people accused of domestic violence have a right to carry firearms. A 29-year-old federal law says no. It bars people under domestic violence protective orders from possessing guns. But when the court hears arguments on the constitutionality of that law, the justices likely will focus on whether the law meets a “text, history, and tradition” test the court laid out just last year for gun-rights cases. (Gerstein, 11/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
Texas Man With History Of Wantonly Firing AR-15 Could Gut Gun Laws Nationwide
Zackey Rahimi pulled a gun on his ex-girlfriend in a parking lot and shot at a witness who saw them arguing, prompting a Texas family court to issue a protective order in 2020 temporarily forbidding him from possessing firearms. Rahimi ignored the order, authorities say, going on to threaten another woman with a gun, fire an AR-15 into the house of one of his narcotics customers, and shoot into the air at a Whataburger drive-through after his friend’s credit card was declined. That led to his conviction under a 1994 federal law prohibiting people under domestic-violence orders from possessing guns—and set up the latest chapter in the modern history of the Second Amendment. (Bravin, 11/6)
The New York Times:
Texas Man At Center Of Supreme Court Case Says He No Longer Wants Guns
In a handwritten letter from jail, the man at the center of a major Supreme Court gun rights case to be heard on Tuesday apologized for going down “a wrong path” and wrote that he would no longer carry a gun. “I will make sure for sure this time that when I finish my time being incarcerated to stay the faithful, righteous person I am this day,” the man, Zackey Rahimi, wrote. He added that he wanted “to stay away from all firearms and weapons, and to never be away from my family again.” Despite Mr. Rahimi’s vows in the July 25 letter addressed to a local judge and prosecutor, gun rights advocates acknowledge that he is not an ideal poster boy for the Second Amendment. (VanSickle, 11/6)
Also —
The Washington Post:
Father Of Highland Park Shooter Pleads Guilty For Son’s Access To Guns
The father of the man accused of killing seven people and wounding 31 at the 2022 Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., pleaded guilty Monday to seven counts of misdemeanor reckless conduct for his role in allowing his son to obtain firearms. Robert Crimo Jr. had been charged for “recklessly” sponsoring his son’s gun ownership application and allowing him access to firearms and ammunition, even though he was aware that Robert Crimo III had threatened violence and expressed suicidal thoughts. The young man was indicted last year in connection with the mass killing in the suburban Chicago town. (Berger, 11/6)
The Texas Tribune:
Mom Of Uvalde School Shooting Victim Runs For Mayor
Nearly 18 months after the deadliest school shooting in Texas, Uvalde residents will elect a new mayor in a special election. Among the three candidates vying to lead the majority-Latino town is Kimberly Mata-Rubio, whose daughter Lexi was killed at Robb Elementary School last May. (Salhotra, 11/7)
