According to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 88 percent of the guns used by students to commit suicide and more than 50 percent of the firearms used to kill others came from either the shooter's own home or from a friend or relative. All of these shootings took place on the school grounds or while traveling to or from classes or a school-sponsored event.

"These events represent less than 1 percent of all homicides and suicides among school-age children, but they're occurring often enough that we can begin to detect some patterns," says Dr. Mark Anderson, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC in Atlanta. "One of those patterns [is] where they get the firearms. Most of them get them from home or from friends or relatives."

These disturbing numbers highlight the need for safe storage of firearms and other prevention strategies, says the study, appearing in the March 7 issue of the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report .

Between July 1, 1992, and June 30, 1999, the CDC identified, from media reports, 323 school-associated violent events (including but not limited to firearms) that resulted in 358 deaths of primary and secondary school students.

Within this group, 218 students were directly involved and 56.4 percent (123) of them used at least one firearm in the event.

Among those carrying a firearm, 69.1 percent committed a homicide, 26.8 percent committed suicide, and 4.1 percent did both. The perpetrators were overwhelmingly male (93.5 percent) and had a median age of 16 years, although the ages ranged from 10 to 21.

The CDC collected data on the types of weapons used and their sources through interviews with school and police officials and by reviewing the official police reports on the events.

A total of 128 firearms were used in all the events (some of the perpetrators carried more than one gun each). Of these, 37.5 percent came from the perpetrator's home, 23.4 percent from a friend or relative.

More than three-quarters (76.5 percent) of the guns used to commit suicide, and 23.4 percent of the guns used to commit homicide, were obtained from the home. However, more guns used in homicides (27.6 percent) were obtained from friends or relatives.

The guns used by students in school-associated suicides were about 11 times more likely to come from their home than firearms used for homicide. Guns from the home were 3.7 times more likely to be used when the event claimed multiple victims as opposed to a single victim. Also, the firearms were four times as likely to come from a two-parent home as they were from a single-parent household.

"The results from this study highlight the importance of safe storage of firearms and the need to scientifically explore other options," Anderson says. "We think it's very important we emphasize safe storage of firearms, and we encourage parents to talk to friends and relatives to prevent some of events form occurring in the future."

Safe storage options include storing the gun unloaded in areas that are inaccessible to the child, such as a locked gun safe.

Pediatric health-care providers are also encouraged to counsel parents on safe storage. The problem with this, the study points out, is that it's more often the mother who takes the child for doctor's visits, and women are less likely than men to actually own and care for a gun.

Changing the design of firearms might go further in preventing school-related shootings, says the report. This would involve incorporating safety features to make the gun more difficult to use or marketing more personalized handguns, which are emerging to prevent unauthorized use.

More information

For more on children and firearms, visit the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry . Also, the Rand Corp. has information on firearm storage patterns in the home.

SOURCES: Mark Anderson, M.D., medical epidemiologist, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta; March 7, 2003, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

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