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Abstract
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From firearm suicide and homicide to unintended harm, a public-health approach can establish the knowledge and know-how needed to reduce suffering.
From 2001 to 2020, US cancer death rates fell by 27%. The nation's traffic fatality rates per 100,000 people fell by about 21%, even counting a small rise in 2020. By contrast, US gun death rates went up: by 24% for suicide and by 48% for homicide1 (see 'Deaths up'). In 2020, firearms became the leading cause of death for US children2. Yet firearm injury is among the least researched and worst funded of the leading causes of death in the United States3,4 (see 'Dollars by death rate').
We are clinicians, researchers and advocates who are convinced that more research on the topic can help to reduce deaths and injuries. It has helped in other fields. For instance, seatbelts in cars were initially considered an industry issue, but a public-health framing brought more data and encouraged effective safety measures. Better data and improved research have similarly informed comprehensive public-health strategies that have reduced issues from tobacco use and child drownings to lead poisoning and vaccine-preventable diseases. Providing evidence can inform strategies that both tackle the root causes of a problem and use timely, accurate data to iterate solutions. It will take more than data to reduce harm, but firm evidence and improved understanding can spur effective efforts.
According to a 2017 review, the volume of research publications related to firearm injury was only 4.5% of that predicted based on health burden4. A 2019 paper5 estimated that a 30-fold increase would be needed in funding for paediatric firearm-injury prevention alone to achieve funding levels on a par with other causes that have similar mortality rates. Despite recent improvements, the number of researchers in firearm-injury prevention remains low.
Language: en |