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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The intent of this article by Cotton was to examine the growing concern of gun-related deaths as a public health issue.
METHODOLOGY:
The author employed a non-experimental design by reviewing recent trends in gun-related deaths and by describing public health measures that were geared at reducing the number of firearm homicides and suicides.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
Firearms were the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, with 35,000 lives lost in 1989; 52% were suicides, 42% were homicides, and 6% were accidental. Firearm homicide rates were between 17 and 283 times as much as other industrialized nations, with an increasing trend toward younger perpetrators. For every firearm fatality there were approximately 7 nonfatal injuries, according to hospital discharge data from 1988. In 1991, the incidents at the University of Iowa (where a disgruntled doctoral student gunned down six people) and Killeen, Texas (where 23 people were killed by a 35 year-old man who was shooting at anyone he could), combined with the issues listed above, moved gun problems into the realm of public health. More agencies were looking at public health interventions, including the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, GA. Such organizations were finding that several preventative measures were worth exploring as a means of addressing the gun injury problem. These measures included gun control legislation; public education about the number of guns in the home which caused harm to those who lived in the home; pressuring the media to accurately portray the consequences of gun use; teaching healthy conflict resolution to children; promoting the use of locked gun storage; requiring load indicators on guns to prevent accidental misfiring during cleaning; limiting the velocities of bullets and restricting larger caliber weapons; holding parents and guardians liable for improperly locked guns. The average cost per person in a gun-related death ($373,000) was higher than any other injury-related death, much of which was lost potential earnings of young victims. While many opponents to gun control claimed a need for self-protection, studies suggested that these guns were the most likely to be used for suicide and more likely to be used against friends and family than intruders; according to a study in King County, Washington, only 2.3% of the deaths caused by guns in the home were justifiable self-defense. Another study in Galveston, Texas found that the ratio of self-protection injuries to unintentional injuries due to guns in the home was 1 to 11. On the other side of the coin, research in Durham, NC indicated that low rates of gun ownership in cities were associated with lower rates of firearm robberies and robbery-related murder. One of the most striking cases, according to the author, was that of Seattle, Washington vs. Vancouver, British Columbia. Although the cities have comparable rates of law enforcement, social, economic, and ethnic composition, and almost identical rates of burglary, robbery, simple assault and aggravated assault, Seattle's homicide rate was nearly 65% higher than Vancouver's. The causes often argued for the difference were Vancouver's strict permit laws and Vancouver's failure to identify self-defense as a legitimate reason to own a gun.
AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
The author closed with the suggestion that scientists continue to gather information on the effects of different laws in different circumstances. Such research would provide citizens with honest, objective information on the implications of gun ownership, gun control laws, and public health measures.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
KW - Death Rates
KW - Homicide Rates
KW - Homicide Incidence and Prevalence
KW - Firearms Death
KW - Firearms Homicide
KW - Firearms Violence
KW - Firearms Suicide
KW - Firearms Prevention
KW - 1980s
KW - 1990s
KW - Violence Rates
KW - Violence Incidence and Prevalence
KW - Homicide Incidence and Prevalence
KW - Homicide Prevention
KW - Homicide Rates
KW - Suicide Incidence and Prevalence
KW - Suicide Prevention
KW - Suicide Rates
KW - Public Health Approach
KW - Adult Firearms Use
KW - Adult Offender
KW - Adult Suicide
KW - Adult Homicide
KW - Adult Violence
KW - Juvenile Firearms Use
KW - Juvenile Homicide
KW - Juvenile Offender
KW - Juvenile Suicide
KW - Juvenile Violence |