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Firearm Injury from Crime U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings April 1996, NCJ-160093 Firearms, crime, and criminal justice Firearm Injury from Crime By Marianne W. Zawitz BJS Statistician Highlights What information is available about firearm injury from crime? Of the victims of nonfatal violent to an emergency room were subse- crime who faced an assailant armed quently hospitalized. page 2 Firearm injuries caused by crime in- with a firearm, 3% suffered gunshot Over half of the victims of nonfatal clude those caused by interpersonal wounds. page 1 gunshot wounds from crime who violence regardless of whether or not Over half of all nonfatal firearm- were treated in emergency depart- the victim was the intended target. related injuries treated in emergency ments were black males; a quarter Such injuries can be fatal (homicides) departments were known to have re- were black males age 15-24. page 3 or nonfatal (assaults). As discussed sulted from an assault. page 2 While the majority of victims of in- on page 6, firearm homicide data from An estimated 57,500 nonfatal gun- tentional gunshot wounds were black, several good sources have been avail- shot wounds from assaults were most victims of unintentional firearm able for many years. Little data on treated in hospital emergency depart- injury and suicide attempts with fire- nonfatal firearm injuries caused by ments from June 1992 through May arms were white. page 3 crime were available until recently. 1993. page 2 For 12% of the victims of nonfatal While many jurisdictions have laws Of those victims who received non- gunshot wounds from crime, the term mandating the reporting of gunshot fatal gunshot wounds from crime and "drive-by" was used to describe the wounds to law enforcement, there is were treated in an emergency room, assault. page 4 no national registry of such injuries. 65% arrived by emergency medical The firearm injury rate for police of- service, rescue squad, or ambulance. ficers declined in the early 1980s and To understand firearm injury better, the page 2 began climbing again after 1987, but Centers for Disease Control and Pre- Almost half of the victims of nonfa- has not exceeded the peak reached vention (CDC) initiated the Firearms tal gunshot wounds from crime were in 1980-81. page 4 Injury Surveillance Study in June 1992. shot in an arm, hand, leg, or foot. This report is the third in a series on firearms, As discussed on page 5, this study col- page 2 crime, and criminal justice. The first report in lects data about gun-related injuries About 60% of the victims of nonfa- the series, Guns Used in Crime (NCJ-148201, July 1995), includes definitions of commonly treated at hospital emergency depart- tal firearm injury from crime who went used firearm terms. ments through the Consumer Product Safety Commission's National Elec- tronic Injury Surveillance System. 29% of the victims of nonfatal violent According to the 1992 National Hos- crime, excluding simple assault, faced pital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, Firearm-related crime and resulting an offender armed with a gun. about 0.3% of all injury visits to injury is a relatively rare event An earlier analysis of NCVS data for emergency departments (3 of every 1987-92 found that of the victims of 1,000 visits) were caused by firearms. In 1994 the BJS National Crime Vic- nonfatal violent crime who faced an as- This estimate includes all causes of timization Survey (NCVS) found that sailant armed with a firearm, 3% suf- firearm injury and may also include vis- fered gunshot wounds. its for patients seeking follow-up care and patients who died at the hospital. How often are victims injured violence, most firearm-related deaths Webster and others analyzed all crime- as a result of crimes committed are self-inflicted. According to the Vital related gunshot wound cases that with firearms? Statistics, 37,776 firearm deaths oc- were admitted to a level I trauma unit curred in 1992; 48% were suicides, in Washington, D.C., from 1983 to According to an analysis of NCVS data and 47% homicides/legal interventions, 1990.* They found that the severity of for 1987-92, about 17% of the victims and 4% unintentional. gunshot wounds increased during the of nonfatal gun crimes were injured. study period. Increased mortality Of those injured, 61% received minor How did the victims of firearm in- among victims of gunshot wounds was injuries. Few of those injured in nonfa- jury from crime get to the hospital? a function of an increase in the per- tal gun crimes received injuries that re- centage of patients who suffered sulted from the discharge of a firearm; About two-thirds of the victims of gun- wounds to the head or thoracic regions about 19% of the victims injured in gun shot wounds from crime who were that included the vital organs. In addi- crimes suffered from gunshot wounds. treated in emergency departments tion, the increase in patient mortality The NCVS does not include victims were taken to the emergency depart- during the last 3 years of the study who died. ment by an emergency medical serv- was partially attributable to increases ice, ambulance, or rescue squad. in the proportion of patients with multi- Percent Percent of victims ple thoracic wounds. Overall, they of victims Mode of transport of gunshot wounds found that the proportion of patients Injured in gun crime 100 % to the hospital from crime Gunshot wound 19 with two or more gunshot wounds grew Serious injury 15 EMS/Rescue/Ambulance 65% from about 26% before 1987 to 43% Rape/Attempted rape 5 Private vehicle 19 from 1988 through 1990. Minor injury 61 Walk-in 6 Police 4 Most victims of intentional firearms Of the victims who suffered gunshot Unknown 4 injury treated in an emergency wounds, over 90% reported that they Air transport 2 room are subsequently hospitalized were treated at a hospital. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Firearm Injury Surveillance Study, The CDC data show that about 60% of June 1, 1992, through May 31, 1993. How many people are injured by the victims of nonfatal intentionally in- firearms and how many are the re- Victims of unintentional firearm injury flicted gunshot wounds (an estimated sult of crime? differ from other types of gunshot vic- 34,500) were hospitalized after their tims in that a higher percentage come initial treatment in an emergency room. The Centers for Disease Control and The remainder (40%) were released to hospital by private vehicle than any 2 Prevention (CDC) estimates that be- other means. after being treated or transferred. The tween June 1, 1992, and May 31, CDC firearms study did not follow 1993, about 99,000 nonfatal firearm- Where were victims of gunshot treatment after admission but did esti- related injuries were treated in U.S. assaults wounded? mate that about 92% of the victims hospital emergency departments. Of hospitalized for firearm injury were dis- these, an estimated 57,500 nonfatal Data from the CDC study of nonfatal charged from the hospital alive. gunshot wounds were known to have 1 firearm injury show that almost half of resulted from assaults. the victims shot as a result of an as- Data from the NCVS on nonfatal fire- arm crimes for 1987-92 showed that sault received wounds to the extremi- Of the total firearm injuries ties (arms, hands, legs, or feet). Over over half of the victims of gunshot 58% resulted from assaults a third of these victims were shot in the wounds were hospitalized and of these 20% were unintentional trunk, and the remainder were shot in victims over half were hospitalized less 5% were suicide attempts the head or neck. than 1 week. 1% were legal interventions 16% were from unknown causes. By contrast, three-quarters of the vic- The analysis by Webster and others tims of unintentional gunshot wounds found that 28% of the admitted pa- CDC estimates that there were 3.3 were shot in the arms, legs, or feet, tients received some care in an inten- nonfatal firearms-related injuries from while two-thirds of the victims of sui- sive care unit. In 1990 the gunshot assault or legal intervention for every cide attempts were shot in the head or wound patients in intensive care spent firearm-related homicide. While most neck or upper trunk. an average of 2.2 days in the unit.* nonfatal firearm-related injuries are the result of intentional, interpersonal *A full citation for this source is at the end of this paper. 2 195% confidence interval estimates the number 95% confidence interval estimates the number to be between 33,800 to 81,000. See to be between 20,300 to 48,700. See Methodology. Methodology. 2 Firearm Injury from Crime Over half the victims of gunshot Who are the victims of gunshot wounds from crime? wounds from crime who were Percent of victims treated in hospital emergency of nonfatal gunshot departments were black males wounds from crime treated in hospital Victim emergency Percent of victims characteristic departments of nonfatal gunshot Sex Almost 9 of 10 victims were male wounds from crime Male 87% Female 13 Black male 52% White male* 15 Race and Hispanic male 13 ethnicity About 6 in 10 victims were black Black female 6 White* 19% White female* 4 Black 59 Other male 3 Hispanic 14 Hispanic female 1 Other 4 Other female 1 Unknown 5 Unknown 5 Age One quarter of the victims were under age 20 *Represents white, non-Hispanic. 0-14 3% Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Firearm Injury Surveillance 15-19 22 About half of the victims were between Study, June 1, 1992, through May 31, 1993.
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