NCJ Number
168433
Date Published
1997
Length
26 pages
Annotation
Firearm-related injuries and deaths are examined with respect to the demographic characteristics of victims, trends over time, and the economic burden on trauma care systems that treat victims of firearms violence.
Abstract
The analysis uses Federal mortality data and medical journal research to consolidate information on firearm-related homicide, suicide, unintentional shootings, and nonfatal firearm injuries by sex, age, and race. The analysis reveals that, contrary to popular perception, most gun death in the United States is unrelated to crime. The country experienced 18,503 firearms suicides, 15,835 firearms homicides, 1,225 unintentional deaths from firearms, and 394 firearms deaths of unknown intent in 1995. The majority of homicide victims die not as the result of criminal activity but because of arguments between people who know each other. Firearms are the second most frequent cause of death overall for people ages 15-24. Firearms also produce large costs in hospitalization, rehabilitation, and lost wages. The lifetime economic cost of firearms violence totaled $20.4 billion in 1990. Firearms violence stems basically from the virtually unregulated distribution of an inherent consumer product of which specific categories such as handguns and assault weapons have limited usefulness and produce high costs on society in the form of death and injury. Thus, firearms violence needs to be addressed as a widespread public health problem of which crime is merely the most recognized aspect. Footnotes, reference notes, and appended tables and discussion of the Second Amendment