One-in-four children treated for firearm injuries had prior emergency visits for motor vehicle crashes or other violent incidents, revealing a cycle of recurrent trauma.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Pattern of Repeat Injuries – AAP 2025 research reports that one-in-four children treated for firearm injuries had prior emergency visits for motor vehicle crashes or other violent incidents, revealing a cycle of recurrent trauma.
- Predictive Risk Factors – Motor vehicle and non-firearm violent injuries were strong predictors of future firearm injury, suggesting overlapping behavioral or environmental risk factors among youth.
- Call for Early Intervention – Researchers stress collaboration between community and clinical teams to use these insights for early prevention and evidence-based programs that reduce repeat injury and death.
One-in-four children treated in an emergency department for firearm injuries had been treated in a prior visit for injuries caused by a motor vehicle crash or other violent incident, according to new research presented during AAP 2025. Researchers say the significant association between types of injuries could indicate a pattern of risky behaviors.
The authors of an abstract, “Associational Analysis for Pediatric Firearm Injury Risk,” found that children and youth with firearm, non-firearm violent, and motor vehicle crash injuries visited a Midwest hospital system’s emergency department on multiple occasions within a four-year period.
“As a pediatric emergency physician, I see firsthand how trauma doesn’t happen in isolation,” said Mike Levas, MD, senior author and pediatrics professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Medical Director of Project Ujima, Children’s Wisconsin’s hospital-based violence intervention program.
“Our study reveals a troubling pattern: nearly one-in-four children with firearm injuries return to the emergency room with another violent or crash-related injury within just four years. These aren’t random events—they’re interconnected.”
Researchers analyzed records from 2,614 emergency department visits between 2018-2022, finding the type and severity of a child’s repeat injuries were predictive of whether they’d return to the emergency department in the future with a firearm injury. The findings revealed a significant association between motor vehicle crashes and firearm injury, with motor vehicle crashes and violent injuries serving as predictors for subsequent firearm injury.
Maria Beyer, study author and community health evaluation manager, said that partnership between community, clinical, and scientific team members is essential to generate evidence-based insights, which are necessary to create meaningful, sustainable solutions.
“Our community health teams work closely with kids and families to understand their experiences, alongside clinical teams who have robust information at their fingertips through a patient’s medical history and are repeatedly treating kids for these injuries,” she said. “Together they share observations and compile evidence, setting the stage for the kind of statistical modeling we were able to achieve through this study.”
