An annual review of preventable child fatalities in Arizona says that firearm-related deaths in the state continued to rise last year.
The Arizona Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics said this week in its yearly look at child fatalities that guns killed 43 minors in 2017, up from 36 in 2016 in a gradual six-year rise. Sixty-three percent of deaths occurred in the child's home and 51 percent involved their parents' guns. More than half of the gun-caused deaths were suicides.
There were 50 child suicides of all kinds last year, up from 38 in 2016.
The report says 337 of 806 child deaths in Arizona last year were preventable.
Reporting teams relied on information from hospitals, physicians, medical examiners, child protective service agencies, fire departments and law enforcement.
