Protecting Ohio’s Children: Ending the Epidemic of Gun Violence

Introduction

Gun violence has become the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States, surpassing cancer and motor vehicle accidents. Nowhere is this crisis more pronounced than in Ohio, where over 1,800 people died from gun-related injuries in 2022 alone, 102 of them were children and teens aged 1 to 17.

Despite the staggering statistics, policy change has remained sluggish. In fact, recent legislative actions in Ohio have weakened existing protections, even as calls for stronger gun safety laws grow louder. This moment demands not just political will, but collective societal courage to confront the root causes of violence, unsafe gun access, broken homes, untreated trauma, and policy inertia.

The Numbers:

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Brady United Against Gun Violence, here’s what we know:

Gun Deaths in Ohio (2022, finalized data):

• Total gun deaths: 1,831

  • Homicides: 738

  • Suicides: 1,046

  • Other: 47

• Child and teen gun deaths (ages 1–17): 102

• Ohio ranks:

  • 11th in gun homicide rate among Black Americans.

  • 8th in gun suicide rate among Black Americans.

  • 1st in causes of child and teen death: gun violence.

Current Context (2023 Estimates):

• Gun death rate: 15.0 per 100,000 people.

• Motor vehicle death rate: 11.5 per 100,000 people.

• Average frequency: One gun-related death every five hours in Ohio.

The Toll on Families:

In recent weeks, Ohio has witnessed a harrowing string of gun incidents:

• A toddler discharged a gun found hidden in a couch.

• A third grader brought a loaded firearm to school and threatened classmates.

• A wave of mass shootings remains unsolved, leaving communities in fear and mourning.

Each incident is a tragedy. But together, they expose a deeper truth: we are raising children in a landscape of loaded weapons and loaded trauma.

ASK Day: A Life-Saving Question

Each year on ASK (Asking Saves Kids) Day, families are encouraged to ask a simple but vital question:

“Is there an unlocked gun in the home where my child plays?”

Launched by Brady United at the Million Mom March in 2000, the campaign has evolved through its End Family Fire program to target the 4.6 million U.S. homes where children have access to unlocked or unsupervised guns. In Ohio alone, this unsafe storage has contributed to the epidemic of unintentional shootings and suicides among youth.

Ohio’s Legislative Backslide

Despite rising gun deaths, the Ohio legislature has:

• Eliminated permit and safety training requirements for concealed carry.

• Passed a “Shoot First” law, increasing the risk of vigilante-style violence.

• Approved laws allowing K–12 school staff to carry firearms, often with minimal training.

This rollback of safety standards places more guns in public spaces without corresponding accountability measures, a dangerous combination, especially for children.

Some advocates, faced with legislative gridlock, are now pushing for a constitutional amendment to enshrine gun safety measures into Ohio’s legal fabric. The stakes are high: if Ohio matched the gun death rates of the nine U.S. states with the strongest gun laws, experts estimate that over 11,600 lives could be saved over the next decade.

Gun Access Enables the Means; Dysfunction Fuels the Motive

A 2018 study revealed that 75% of adolescent murderers in the U.S. came from fatherless homes. The absence of parental presence, emotional neglect, poverty, and unresolved trauma are recurring themes in the lives of many young perpetrators.

We must shift our thinking. Children do not become violent in a vacuum. They are often products of instability, silence, and systemic neglect. While background checks, red flag laws, and safe storage legislation are essential, they are not enough. If the child is broken before the trigger is pulled, we are already too late.

Policy and Parenting Must Work Together

We must stop framing this as a binary debate between gun reform and personal responsibility. The truth is, both are essential.

We need laws that:

• Require safe storage of firearms in homes with children.

• Enforce universal background checks and mental health screenings.

• Restore permit and training requirements for concealed carry.

• Ban assault weapons from civilian use.

• Invest in community violence interruption programs.

We also need a culture that:

• Reinforces parental presence, emotional connection, and stability in homes.

• Builds trauma-informed systems in schools and child welfare.

• Prioritizes early mental health intervention for at-risk youth.

• Ends the silence around family dysfunction and domestic abuse.

Conclusion

To protect our children, we must act before blood is spilled, not just in policy chambers but in living rooms, classrooms, and courtrooms. Gun violence is not just about guns. It is about the homes they are kept in, the people who feel compelled to use them, and the children caught in the crossfire. Let us mourn the victims, but also the neglected childhoods that could have become something else, if only someone had asked the right questions, stored the gun safely, offered the right kind of love, or passed the right law.

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