- Email: [email protected]
Evidence-based gun control
Preventive Medicine 55 (2012) 261
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Preventive Medicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ypmed
This Month in Preventive Medicine
Evidence-based gun control The killing of 12 people (13 including a related miscarriage by one of the injured victims whose six-year old daughter was killed) in a Colorado movie theater in July 2012, one of the worst mass shootings in American history, attests once again that gun control is not only a legal issue, it is also a public health one which prematurely takes the life of thousands of people (around 32,300 annual deaths in the U.S. from firearm injuries in the 24 year period from 1980 to 2006, accounting for 6.6% of years of potential life lost prior to age 65 (Firearm and Injury Center at Penn, 2009)). The victims are much too often children and young adults (Stevens et al., 2001). A 1997 comparison from the CDC indicated a gun-related death rate of 1.66 per 100,000 per year in the U.S. vs. 0.14 in 25 other industrialized countries (CDC, 1997). This is a 12-fold difference indicating that these gun-related deaths must be highly preventable. The question is how. In this month's issue of Preventive Medicine, Sen and Panjamapirom (2012) explored the association between background checks on an individual seeking to purchase a gun and firearm deaths across U.S. regions. They observed that gun retailers can check at least six “background” characteristics of their clients for restricting gun sales because they can put the population at risk. Two of these characteristics, having a criminal record and having been subject to a restraining order following domestic violence or other unlawful conduct, are currently required in all states. But in 2005, only 76% of the states requested checking for mental illness, and not all states required checks on whether the client was a fugitive or was accused of misdemeanor level offenses. In 2005, the mean number of restrictions to gun access imposed by U.S. states was 4.3 out of 6. This represents progress compared to the mean of 2.4 in 1996. The lowest number of restrictions was in the East South Central States (KY, AL, TN, MS) and the highest was in New England (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT) (Sen and Panjamapirom, 2012). Sen and Panjamapirom's (2012) analysis suggests that the incidence of homicide is inversely related to the number of background characteristics checked by the retailer. Mental illness and fugitive status appear to be protective checks too. As mentioned by Sen and Panjamapirom (2012), the study is still exploratory because it is based on crude survey data. Their study, however, does indicate the way. Gun control is not only a question of individual philosophy. It is a public health issue which needs to be prevented by an evidence-based policy. References CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), 1997. Rates of homicide, suicide, and firearm-related death among children — 26 industrialized countries. JAMA 277, 704–705.MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly Rep. 46:101-105; http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/ preview/mmwrhtml/00046149.htm. Firearm and Injury Center at Penn, 2009. Firearm injury in the U.S. www.uphs.upenn.edu/ficap/resourcebook/pdf/monograph. pdf. Sen, B., Panjamapirom, A., 2012. State background checks for gun purchase and firearm deaths: an exploratory study. Prev. Med. 55, 346–350. Stevens, M.M., Gaffney, C.A., Tosteson, T.D., et al., 2001. Children and guns in a well child cohort. Prev. Med. 32, 201–206.
Alfredo Morabia Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, E Remsen Hall, Queens College — The City University of New York, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY 11367, USA Corresponding author. Michael C. Costanza 6 Newbury Close, Rushden, Northamptonshire NN10 0EU, UK E-mail address: [email protected].
0091-7435/$ – see front matter © 2012 Published by Elsevier Inc. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2012.09.004
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Preventive Medicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ypmed
This Month in Preventive Medicine
Evidence-based gun control The killing of 12 people (13 including a related miscarriage by one of the injured victims whose six-year old daughter was killed) in a Colorado movie theater in July 2012, one of the worst mass shootings in American history, attests once again that gun control is not only a legal issue, it is also a public health one which prematurely takes the life of thousands of people (around 32,300 annual deaths in the U.S. from firearm injuries in the 24 year period from 1980 to 2006, accounting for 6.6% of years of potential life lost prior to age 65 (Firearm and Injury Center at Penn, 2009)). The victims are much too often children and young adults (Stevens et al., 2001). A 1997 comparison from the CDC indicated a gun-related death rate of 1.66 per 100,000 per year in the U.S. vs. 0.14 in 25 other industrialized countries (CDC, 1997). This is a 12-fold difference indicating that these gun-related deaths must be highly preventable. The question is how. In this month's issue of Preventive Medicine, Sen and Panjamapirom (2012) explored the association between background checks on an individual seeking to purchase a gun and firearm deaths across U.S. regions. They observed that gun retailers can check at least six “background” characteristics of their clients for restricting gun sales because they can put the population at risk. Two of these characteristics, having a criminal record and having been subject to a restraining order following domestic violence or other unlawful conduct, are currently required in all states. But in 2005, only 76% of the states requested checking for mental illness, and not all states required checks on whether the client was a fugitive or was accused of misdemeanor level offenses. In 2005, the mean number of restrictions to gun access imposed by U.S. states was 4.3 out of 6. This represents progress compared to the mean of 2.4 in 1996. The lowest number of restrictions was in the East South Central States (KY, AL, TN, MS) and the highest was in New England (ME, NH, VT, MA, RI, CT) (Sen and Panjamapirom, 2012). Sen and Panjamapirom's (2012) analysis suggests that the incidence of homicide is inversely related to the number of background characteristics checked by the retailer. Mental illness and fugitive status appear to be protective checks too. As mentioned by Sen and Panjamapirom (2012), the study is still exploratory because it is based on crude survey data. Their study, however, does indicate the way. Gun control is not only a question of individual philosophy. It is a public health issue which needs to be prevented by an evidence-based policy. References CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), 1997. Rates of homicide, suicide, and firearm-related death among children — 26 industrialized countries. JAMA 277, 704–705.MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly Rep. 46:101-105; http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/ preview/mmwrhtml/00046149.htm. Firearm and Injury Center at Penn, 2009. Firearm injury in the U.S. www.uphs.upenn.edu/ficap/resourcebook/pdf/monograph. pdf. Sen, B., Panjamapirom, A., 2012. State background checks for gun purchase and firearm deaths: an exploratory study. Prev. Med. 55, 346–350. Stevens, M.M., Gaffney, C.A., Tosteson, T.D., et al., 2001. Children and guns in a well child cohort. Prev. Med. 32, 201–206.
Alfredo Morabia Center for the Biology of Natural Systems, E Remsen Hall, Queens College — The City University of New York, 65-30 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY 11367, USA Corresponding author. Michael C. Costanza 6 Newbury Close, Rushden, Northamptonshire NN10 0EU, UK E-mail address: [email protected].
0091-7435/$ – see front matter © 2012 Published by Elsevier Inc. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2012.09.004