Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Gun violence in the U.S. is a significant public health burden, accounting for over 30,000 deaths and an estimated 73,000 injures each year. Like other disease burdens with complex interactions between the host (individuals), agents (firearms) and the environment, epidemiological principles can identify patterns in the determinants and distribution of firearm injuries to develop, implement and evaluate evidence-based interventions (programs, policies, technologies). The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) was formed in 2002 with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to link information on violent deaths from medical examiners and coroners to data on circumstances and weapons from law enforcement and crime laboratories. Involvement of forensic pathologists, medical examiners and coroners is critically important for a complete National Violent Death Reporting System and vital for the systematic collection, analysis, and dissemination of data on all violent deaths in the United States.

Keywords

Forensic pathology Gun violence

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

WISQARS: Web-based injury statistics query and reporting system [Internet]. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; c1999. Fatal injury reports; [cited 2013 Mar 7]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/fatal_injury_reports.html.

WISQARS: Web-Based injury statistics query and reporting system [Internet]. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; c1999. Nonfatal injury reports, 2001 - 2011; [cited 2013 Mar 7]. Available from: http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html.

Kumar

Abbas

A.K.

Fausto

Aster

J.C.

Robbins and Contran pathologic basis of disease. 8th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier; 2010. Chapter 1, Cellular responses to stress and toxic insults: adaption, injury and death. p. 1–43.

Branas

C.C.

Nance

M.L.

Elliott

M.R.

Urban-rural shifts in intentional firearm death: different causes, same results. Am J Public Health. 2004 Oct; 94(10): 1750–5.

McGonigal

M.D.

Cole

Schwab

C.W.

Urban firearm deaths: a five-year perspective. J Trauma. 1993 Oct; 35(4): 532–6; discussion 536–7.

NVDRS: National Violent Death Reporting System [Internet]. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2002 [cited 2013 Apr 4]. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/nvdrs/.

The White House. Now is the time. The President's plan to protect our children and our communities by reducing gun violence [Internet]. Washington; 2013 Jan 16 [cited 2013 April 3]. Available from: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/wh_now_is_the_time_full.pdf.

Addressing the Burden of Gun Violence

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References