Citation

Wintemute GJ. Annu. Rev. Public Health 2017; 36: 5-19.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Annual Reviews)

DOI

10.1146/annurev-publhealth-031914-122535

PMID

25533263

Abstract

This brief review summarizes the basic epidemiology of firearm violence, a large and costly public health problem in the United States for which the mortality rate has remained unchanged for more than a decade. It presents findings for the present in light of recent trends. Risk for firearm violence varies substantially across demographic subsets of the population and be- tween states in patterns that are quite different for suicide and homicide. Suicide is far more common than homicide and its rate is increasing; the homicide rate is decreasing. As with other important health problems, most cases of fatal firearm violence arise from large but low-risk subsets of the population; risk and burden of illness are not distributed symmetrically. Compared with other industrialized nations, the United States has uniquely high mortality rates from firearm violence.

Language: en