Title: Death by Firearms<br/>Author: Jon Mark Hirshon<br/><a href='http://umem.org/profiles/faculty/96/'>[Click to email author]</a><hr/><p>
On a day when the 355<sup>th</sup> mass shooting this year in the USA occurred in San Bernardino, California, it seems appropriate to discuss gun violence.</p>
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A recently accepted publication in the American Journal of Medicine compared morality data from the USA to other high-income countries, and found the following:</p>
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The US homicide rates were 7.0 times higher than the aggregated rates of all other high-income countries.</p>
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This is driven primarily by a gun homicide rate that is 25.2 higher</li>
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For 15-24 year olds, the gun homicide rate is 49.0 higher</li>
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The overall US suicide rate is average</p>
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However, in the USA the firearm-related suicide rates were 8.0 times higher</li>
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Unintentional firearm deaths were 6.2 times higher in the US.</p>
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The overall firearm death rate in the US from all causes was 10.0 times higher.</p>
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<strong>Bottom line:</strong> As stated in the article: “The US has an enormous firearm problem compared to other high-income countries with much higher rates of homicide and firearm-related suicide.”</p>
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<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/02/the-san-bernardino-mass-shooting-is-the-second-today-and-the-355th-this-year/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/02/the-san-bernardino-mass-shooting-is-the-second-today-and-the-355th-this-year/</a></p>
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Grinshteyn E, Hemenway D. Violent Death Rates: The United States Compared to Other High-Income OECD Countries, 2010. Am J Med. 2015 Nov 6. pii: S0002-9343(15)01030-X. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2015.10.025.</p>
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