Citation

Cunningham R, Rosenberg M, Corbin T, Branas C, Buggs SAL, Haring S, Jackson R, Jain A, Parsonnet J, Weston B. NAM Perspect. 2023; 2023.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, National Academy of Medicine)

DOI

10.31478/202310a

PMID

38784640

PMCID

PMC11114596

Abstract

Each day in the United States, more than 300 people are shot by a firearm, and more than one-third of them loses their lives (CDC, n.d.a). This includes people who die as a result of homicides, suicides, unintentional shootings, shootings by law enforcement, and mass shootings. Firearms are the leading cause of death among U.S. children and teens (Goldstick et al., 2022). Both cities and small towns share the immense burden of these deaths; in fact, suicides involving a firearm outnumber homicides each year, with those in rural settings representing a large portion of the increase in U.S. firearm deaths in the past few decades (Reeping et al., 2023; Mohatt et al., 2021; Branas et al., 2004). Disparities in firearm homicides by race are acute; for example, the ratio of young Black men to young White men who die as a result of homicide by firearm is 20:1 (Kegler et al., 2022). The economic cost of firearm injuries and deaths, accounting for lives lost, years of disability, and traumatized communities and families--including children--exceeds $566 billion per year (AHRQ, n.d.; Song, 2022).

Firearm injuries and deaths in the United States, with their attendant physical, psychological, and emotional consequences--for victims and perpetrators as well as families, caregivers, and communities--are at a crisis point. However, this burden is not one that we must accept. On the contrary, this crisis has solutions, some of which we already know about, and others yet to be discovered (RAND Corporation, n.d.; Roche et al., 2023; Cunningham et al., 2019a). Science can help us discover these solutions. As it has in the case of other seemingly intractable health and social crises--such as tobacco-related illness and deaths and motor vehicle crashes (MVCs)--scientific research can generate powerful knowledge and guidance to illuminate the path forward (Kahane, 2015; CDC, 2011; Dellinger and Sleet, 2010; Hemenway, 2009; Hemenway, 2001). Science has saved lives and prevented harm from tobacco use and MVCs, and it has done so without banning cigarettes or cars. Similar successes can be achieved when science is applied to the challenge of firearm injuries and deaths.

Language: en