Safe Gun Storage Laws Reduce Suicides
According to a study conducted by researchers at the
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published in the August
4 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, as many as 300 teen suicides may have been prevented because 18 states have passed safe gun storage laws. Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws require gun owners to store their guns so as to prevent unsupervised
access by children. During the years that the CAP laws were enacted (1989-2001), youth suicide rates for 14- to 17-year olds were reduced 8.3%.
The study also examined two other categories of youth-focused laws – minimum purchase age and minimum possession age laws for firearms – and found no association with reductions in youth suicide. The study did not examine the effects of these laws on youth homicides or accidental shootings.
New Tool to Locate Alternate Health Care Sites
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has released a tool to help state and local officials quickly locate alternate health care sites if hospitals are overwhelmed by patients due to a bioterrorism attack or other public health emergency. For a copy and more information on the alternate care site selection tool, go to www.ahrq.gov/research/altsites.htm
|
