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Who Dies? A Look at Firearms Death and Injury in America�Revised Edition

Nonfatal Firearm Injuries

  • Nonfatal firearm injuries treated in hospital emergency departments outnumber firearm fatalities nearly three to one.

  • The primary circumstances for nonfatal firearm injuries are assaults. In 1995 the rate of nonfatal firearm assaultive injury for males in this age group was 156.4 per 100,000�6.2 times the rate of nonfatal firearm assaultive injury for the entire U.S. population (25.1 per 100,000).

While often overlooked, nonfatal firearm injuries create an enormous public health-care burden in the United States. In a recent study, nonfatal firearm injuries treated in hospital emergency departments outnumbered firearm fatalities nearly three to one.75 As previously noted, for every child who dies in an unintentional shooting, an estimated 10 children are treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms for nonfatal unintentional gunshot wounds.76

Between 1992 and 1995, young males aged 15 to 24 accounted for more than 117,000 cases or 40.7 percent of nonfatal firearm injuries in the United States. The primary circumstances for nonfatal firearm injuries are assaults.77 Between 1992 and 1995 approximately 79.5 percent of nonfatal gunshot wounds among males aged 15 to 24 years were caused by assaults.78 In 1995 the rate of nonfatal firearm assaultive injury for males in this age group was 156.4 per 100,000�6.2 times the rate of nonfatal firearm assaultive injury for the entire U.S. population (25.1 per 100,000).79


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All contents � 1999 Violence Policy Center