Firearm injuries in the United States
Introduction
The tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012 cast a spotlight on firearm violence in the United States. Twenty-seven people, mostly schoolchildren and their teachers, lost their lives that day. It was the deadliest school shooting in an elementary or high-school in U.S. history. In an average week, 645 people lose their lives to firearm violence and 1565 more are treated in an emergency department for a firearm-related injury (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2005). Most of these events do not make headlines, yet reflect part of the human toll of firearm violence in the United States.
The nature and frequency of firearm violence, combined with its substantial impact on the health and safety of Americans, make it an important public health problem. Many Americans are non-fatally injured or die in acts involving a firearm each year in the United States. These include acts of interpersonal violence, self-directed violence, legal intervention (i.e., injuries inflicted by law enforcement during the course of duty), unintentional injuries involving a firearm, and acts where the intent cannot be determined. Firearm-related injuries are highly lethal and account for 7.1% of premature death or years of potential life lost before the age of 65 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2005). Firearm homicide is the second leading cause of injury death among youth 10–24 years of age. Firearm suicide, on the other hand, is the third leading cause of injury death for persons aged 35 years and older, after drug overdoses and motor vehicle crashes. Overall, firearm injuries are among the 5 leading causes of death for people ages 1–64 in the United States.
Firearm violence is preventable. The first step in preventing it is to understand the nature and extent of the problem—what it is, whom it affects, where it occurs, how patterns have changed over time and the factors contributing to these changes. An examination of the factors contributing to firearm violence and changes over time is covered elsewhere in this special issue. Here we provide an overview of fatal and nonfatal firearm violence in the United States—examining patterns of interpersonal, self-directed and unintentional firearm injuries and deaths, including the demographic characteristics of victimization, trends over time, and health impact.
Section snippets
Methods
A firearm-related injury is defined as a gunshot wound or penetrating injury from a weapon that uses a powder charge to fire a projectile. This definition includes gunshot injuries sustained from handguns, rifles, and shotguns but excludes gunshot wounds from air-powered, gas-powered, BB and pellet guns, as well as non-penetrating injuries associated with firearms (e.g., “pistol whipping”).
Fatal firearm injuries were derived from death certificate data from the National Vital Statistics System
The extent of firearm injuries and deaths in the U.S.
On average, from 2010 to 2012, more than 32,000 people (n = 32,529) died each year in the U.S. from a firearm-related injury, for an annual age-adjusted rate of 10.2 per 100,000 (Table 1). Sixty-two percent of these were suicides (n = 20,012), 35% were homicides (n = 11,256), and 2% were unintentional firearm deaths (n = 582). The annual rate of firearm suicide was about twice as high as the annual rate of firearm homicide (7.2 vs 3.7) and about 38 times the annual rate of unintentional deaths from
Discussion
The findings in this paper highlight the magnitude and impact of firearm violence in the United States. For every 100,000 people in the U.S. who die in an act of firearm violence, about the same number die in motor vehicle crashes (about 10 per 100,000). Apart from being a common problem, many Americans may not realize that over 60% of all firearm deaths in the U.S. are suicides—almost double the number of firearm homicides. This reflects, in part, the lethality of firearms particularly when
Conclusion
Firearm injuries are an important public health problem in the United States contributing substantially each year to premature death, illness, and disability. The human toll is only part of their devastating impact. The economic impact of firearm-related deaths and injuries costs the United States nearly $50 billion each year in medical and lost productivity costs alone. Understanding the nature, magnitude and health impact of firearm violence is only the first step in preventing firearm
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interests.
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