Kids shot dead mostly in crossfire

MOST OF the Cape Town children who are wounded or killed from firearm-related incidents are caught in the crossfire, the majority being shot outside their homes, a local study has found.

The study, which was presented by Dr Tyson Welzel, a senior lecturer at UCT’s division of emergency medicine at Stellenbosch University yesterday, also showed that boys between six and 12 were at greater risk of being shot than girls of the same age group.

The research, which analysed medical and mortuary records of children with firearm-related injuries and deaths in Cape Town between 2001 and 2011, also found that the Firearms Control Act had no effect in reducing the number of gun injuries in children. The same trend observed in the years preceding the implementation of the Act was evident in the years after implementation.

The Act, which came into effect in July 2004, brought about stricter regulation of licensed firearms, but had very little influence on unlicensed weapons.

Of the 189 paediatric gunshot injuries attended to at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital and Tygerberg Hospital in the 10-year period, 64 percent were caught in crossfire close to home.

Eighteen percent were deemed accidental. The rest were described as intentional. In the same period, 65 gunshot-related child deaths were recorded across greater Cape Town.

Lower limbs, the head and chest were the most common wounds. Injuries were mostly mild to moderate in severity, with 38 percent regarded as superficial while 24 percent were described as complicated lacerations. About 40 percent of the children needed surgical intervention.