Abstract
Most available firearm violence data are summary and they lack sufficient incident and victim details to inform policy and practice. The lack of a national definition for a nonfatal shooting also hinders research. There is evidence to suggest that law enforcement data are a valid and reliable sources for firearm violence data. This exploratory study uses law enforcement data to examine unintentional nonfatal shooting incident and victim characteristics in a large Midwestern city. Data for this project come from law enforcement sources and include all unintentional nonfatal shooting incidents (n=177) occurring between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2019. Exploratory analyses were conducted to describe incidents and victims. Incidents most commonly occurred in the fall season, during nighttime hours, and at a residence. Victims were most likely male, non-white, and 18-34 years old. When injury cause was known, injuries resulted from improper firearm handling. The majority of victims were wounded in their extremities and did not engage emergency medical services before arriving at the emergency department. This study demonstrates the utility of law enforcement data as a source for additional context surrounding unintentional nonfatal shooting incidents. Findings suggest two policy implications: requiring a gun safety course as part of the permitting process and treating gun safety as a life skill by advocating for gun safety courses in schools. Further research is needed to determine why some victims choose not to engage public safety or emergency services prior to arriving at emergency departments.
Highlights
Current and available gun violence data are severely limited despite the ubiquitous presence of gun violence across American cities
This study demonstrates the utility of law enforcement data as a source for additional context surrounding unintentional nonfatal shooting incidents
In Indiana, firearm injuries most commonly come to the attention of law enforcement in two ways: a community member requests emergency services or a healthcare worker notifies law enforcement when someone has presented in the emergency department with a firearm injury
Summary
Current and available gun violence data are severely limited despite the ubiquitous presence of gun violence across American cities. Research has focused on fatal firearm incidents and there are less epidemiologic data available that describe the criminological and public health characteristics of nonfatal unintentional firearm injuries in the U.S (Frattaroli et al, 2002; Grommon & Rydberg, 2015; Kalesan et al, 2017; Webster et al, 2016). While researchers have found similar demography when focusing on unintentional injuries, these findings are not consistent, partially due to a lack of a national definition for a nonfatal shooting (Hipple et al, 2020; Hipple & Magee, 2017; Hipple et al, 2019; Huebner & Hipple, 2018; Reynolds, 2021)
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