TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2020//
TI  - Caught in the crossfire: 37 years of firearm violence afflicting America's youth
JO  - Journal of trauma and acute care surgery
A1  - Magnotti, Louis J.
A1  - Croce, Martin A.
A1  - Fischer, Peter E.
A1  - Bee, Tiffany
A1  - Huang, Dih-Dih
A1  - Manley, Nathan R.
A1  - Lewis, Richard H.
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - INTRODUCTION: Publicly available firearm data is difficult to access. Trauma registry data is excellent at documenting patterns of firearm-related injury. Law  enforcement data excels at capturing national violence trends to include both  circumstances and firearm involvement. The goal of this study was to utilize  publicly available, law enforcement data from all 50 states to better define  patterns of firearm-related homicides in the young. <br><br>METHODS: All homicides in  individuals < 25 years old in the United States over a 37-year period ending in 2016  were analyzed: infant < 1 year old, child > 1-9 years old, adolescent 10-19 years  old, young adult 20-25 years old. Primary data files were obtained from the Federal  Bureau of Investigation and comprised the database. Data analyzed included homicide  type, situation, circumstance, month, firearm type and demographics. Rates of all  homicides and firearm-related homicides per 1 million (M) population and the  proportion of firearm-related homicides (out of all homicides) were stratified by  year and compared over time using simple linear regression. <br><br>RESULTS: 171,113  incidents of firearm-related homicide were analyzed (69% of 246,437 total  homicides): 5,313 infants, 2,332 children, 59,777 adolescents and 103,691 young  adults. Most were male (88%), black (59%) with a median age of 20 years old. Firearm-related homicides peaked during the summer months of June, July and August  (median = 1,156 per year; p = 0.0032). Rates of all homicides (89 to 53 per 1M  population) and firearm-related homicides (56 to 41 per 1M population) decreased  significantly from 1980 to 2016 (β = -1.12, p < 0.0001 and β = -0.57, p = 0.0039,  respectively). However, linear regression analysis identified a significant increase  in the proportion of firearm-related homicides (out of all homicides) from 63% in  1980 to 76% in 2016 (β = 0.33, p < 0.0001). <br><br>CONCLUSIONS: For those 25-years-old and  younger, the proportion of firearm-related homicides has steadily and significantly  increased over the past 37-years, with three out of four homicides firearm-related  in the modern era. Despite focused efforts, reductions in the rate of firearmrelated  homicides still lag behind those for all other methods of homicide by nearly 50%. That is, while the young are less likely to die from homicide, for those unfortunate  victims, it is more likely to be due to a firearm. This increasing role of firearms  in youth homicides underscores the desperate need to better direct prevention  efforts and firearm policy if we hope to further reduce firearm-related deaths in  the young. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level III, epidemiological study.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 2163-0755
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/TA.0000000000003060
ID  - ref1
ER  -