Citation

Ertle AR. Ann. Intern Med. 2018; 169(1): 65-66.

Affiliation

Mercy Medical Group, Sacramento, California (A.R.E.).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, American College of Physicians)

DOI

10.7326/L18-0104

PMID

29971415

Abstract

Everyone in the health profession in the United States probably agrees that there is too much gun violence and too many firearm-related injuries. Matthay and colleagues' study (1) attempts to make an association between the relatively underregulated gun shows of Nevada and the increase in firearm deaths and injuries in the immediate postshow period in California ZIP codes in which residents were deemed close enough to drive to certain California and Nevada shows. What stands out first is the difference in total firearm deaths and injuries for California versus Nevada shows. During the 8-year study period, 14 893 and 74 total firearm deaths and injuries took place after California and Nevada gun shows, respectively, in the 2 weeks after gun shows; that is, total firearm-related injuries after Nevada shows were approximately 0.5% of those after California shows. This vast difference in the raw number of events during this 8-year period indicates an equally vast difference in measured at-risk populations in California between the number of California and Nevada gun shows, despite a more similar number of total gun shows being analyzed in the final regression for California (n = 585) and Nevada (n = 161 [27.5% of the number of California gun shows]).

Language: en