BUFFALO, N.Y. — It's an epidemic, taking the lives of more than 1,300 children every year and hurting another 5,800.

"We continue to see it," said Dr. Kathryn Bass, John R. Oishei Children's Hospital's trauma medical director. "Unfortunately, we have not made a big impact in it."

Whether it's intentional, accidental or by suicide, guns are an issue pediatricians say needs to be addressed now.

"Five percent of high school students said they had held a gun in the last 30 days due to fear or bullying, but that is a lethal combination," said Dr. Beth Smith, the John R. Oishei Children's Hospital psychiatry and behavioral health chief of service.

Doctors called on lawmakers to take action Tuesday. 

"This is really about children," said Dr. Stephen Turkovich, the John R. Oishei Children's Hospital chief medical director. "It's about keeping them safe. This is about letting them grow and thrive. This is not a political issue. This is a public health issue."

But unlike other public health issues, there's no funding to study its effects. That money was eliminated from the CDC budget in the 1990s.

"Our government is censoring our ability to do this work," said Erie County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale Burstein.

"We need the data, just like we need the data for everything else we're focusing on from a public health perspective," Turkovich added. "We can start to develop really smart, strategic strategies to keep our children safe and drive down the effects of firearm injury."

In addition to more funding, doctors want comprehensive gun reform laws. They say increasing access to mental health care is critical because one-third of the gun deaths in Erie County are suicides.

"Children with histories of abuse, children with histories of neglect, children that have witnessed violence in their own homes from domestic abuse or violence in their communities, or have again themselves been injured by violence, those are at greatest risk, and we really need to identify those and get them into appropriate treatments," said Smith.

Local pediatricians are also taking their message to the streets as they will be taking part in the March for Our Lives this Saturday at 1:30 p.m. in Niagara Square.

They're also encouraging people to take the Stop the Bleed training, which teaches people how to pack wounds and make tourniquets, which can be a life-saving measure.