ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The director of a children's hospital trauma center in St. Louis says 2020 was a record year in terms of patients treated for gunshot wounds.
Dr. Martin Keller, Medical Director of Trauma at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, joined Charlie Brennan and Amy Marxkors on KMOX to discuss this epidemic of violence and said the situation “has clearly gotten worse this last year. We saw a record number that far exceeds what we saw in the past.”
Last year 150 kids were treated for gunshot wounds at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital treated over 100 children with gunshot wounds as well in that time span, Keller says.
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He blames the hardships and social stresses brought on by the pandemic along with "an increased availability of guns."
St. Louis is not alone in seeing an uptick in pediatric shootings, however, what makes St. Louis unique is that the majority of these shootings are treated in one of two pediatric trauma centers in the region. He says “many cities might not report the same numbers because of the way patients are distributed around the city, but in effect, they are seeing the same types of increases."
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He mentions Atlanta as another major city seeing a big increase and says "I believe it's pretty common."
Keller said the number of injuries corresponded with the increase of sales of guns in the region. The biggest increase in shootings were kids caught in a crossfire and not the intended victim.
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The second group was kids who found an unsecured gun. This group makes up about 30% of these shootings and he said this is the easiest problem to address by using gun locks and safe secure methods.
Keller also said, "we’re seeing more injuries from the military type weapons ... a lot more devastating injuries than we had In the past”.
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