Alexander D. McCourt, and Jon S. Vernick
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(1):69-76.
Abstract
Firearms in the home pose a risk to household members, including homicide, suicide, and unintentional deaths. Medical societies urge clinicians to counsel patients about those risks as part of sound medical practice. Depending on the circumstances, clinicians might recommend safe firearm storage, temporary removal of the firearm from the home, or other measures. Certain state firearm laws, however, might present legal and ethical challenges for physicians who counsel patients about guns in the home. Specifically, we discuss state background check laws for gun transfers, safe gun storage laws, and laws forbidding physicians from engaging in certain firearm-related conversations with their patients. Medical professionals should be aware of these and other state gun laws but should offer anticipatory guidance when clinically appropriate.
The info is here.
Showing posts with label Homicide. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Homicide. Show all posts
Friday, September 14, 2018
Monday, July 17, 2017
Childhood Firearm Injuries in the United States
Katherine A. Fowler, Linda L. Dahlberg, Tadesse Haileyesus, Carmen Gutierrez, Sarah Bacon
Pediatrics
July 2017, VOLUME 140 / ISSUE 1
RESULTS: Nearly 1300 children die and 5790 are treated for gunshot wounds each year. Boys, older children, and minorities are disproportionately affected. Although unintentional firearm deaths among children declined from 2002 to 2014 and firearm homicides declined from 2007 to 2014, firearm suicides decreased between 2002 and 2007 and then showed a significant upward trend from 2007 to 2014. Rates of firearm homicide among children are higher in many Southern states and parts of the Midwest relative to other parts of the country. Firearm suicides are more dispersed across the United States with some of the highest rates occurring in Western states. Firearm homicides of younger children often occurred in multivictim events and involved intimate partner or family conflict; older children more often died in the context of crime and violence. Firearm suicides were often precipitated by situational and relationship problems. The shooter playing with a gun was the most common circumstance surrounding unintentional firearm deaths of both younger and older children.
CONCLUSIONS: Firearm injuries are an important public health problem, contributing substantially to premature death and disability of children. Understanding their nature and impact is a first step toward prevention.
The article is here.
Pediatrics
July 2017, VOLUME 140 / ISSUE 1
RESULTS: Nearly 1300 children die and 5790 are treated for gunshot wounds each year. Boys, older children, and minorities are disproportionately affected. Although unintentional firearm deaths among children declined from 2002 to 2014 and firearm homicides declined from 2007 to 2014, firearm suicides decreased between 2002 and 2007 and then showed a significant upward trend from 2007 to 2014. Rates of firearm homicide among children are higher in many Southern states and parts of the Midwest relative to other parts of the country. Firearm suicides are more dispersed across the United States with some of the highest rates occurring in Western states. Firearm homicides of younger children often occurred in multivictim events and involved intimate partner or family conflict; older children more often died in the context of crime and violence. Firearm suicides were often precipitated by situational and relationship problems. The shooter playing with a gun was the most common circumstance surrounding unintentional firearm deaths of both younger and older children.
CONCLUSIONS: Firearm injuries are an important public health problem, contributing substantially to premature death and disability of children. Understanding their nature and impact is a first step toward prevention.
The article is here.
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Mental Health Reform Will Not Reduce US Gun Violence, Experts Say
Rita Rubin
JAMA.
Published online December 16, 2015. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.16421
Here is an excerpt:
But while few people would disagree with the need for mental health reform, scientists who study gun violence say it won’t make much of a dent in the number of homicides and attempted homicides committed with firearms. That’s because although mass shooters are likely to be mentally ill (but not necessarily diagnosed), high-profile mass shootings represent only a small fraction of US gun violence, the vast majority of which is committed by people who are not mentally ill. In addition, most people with mental illness are not violent; they are far more likely to be the victims than the perpetrators of shootings.
People should realize that “even though it feels that mass shootings happen all the time, they’re still extremely rare,” said Jeffrey Swanson, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University.
Through early December 2015, about 450 individuals died in mass shootings in the United States last year, according to Mass Shooting Tracker, a crowd-sourced website that defines a mass shooting as one in which at least 4 people have been shot but not necessarily killed (http://bit.ly/1MuHpVL). Compare that with 11 208, the number of people killed in homicides committed with firearms in 2013, the most recent year for which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has US data (http://1.usa.gov/1GEJ0TN).
The entire article is here.
JAMA.
Published online December 16, 2015. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.16421
Here is an excerpt:
But while few people would disagree with the need for mental health reform, scientists who study gun violence say it won’t make much of a dent in the number of homicides and attempted homicides committed with firearms. That’s because although mass shooters are likely to be mentally ill (but not necessarily diagnosed), high-profile mass shootings represent only a small fraction of US gun violence, the vast majority of which is committed by people who are not mentally ill. In addition, most people with mental illness are not violent; they are far more likely to be the victims than the perpetrators of shootings.
People should realize that “even though it feels that mass shootings happen all the time, they’re still extremely rare,” said Jeffrey Swanson, PhD, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University.
Through early December 2015, about 450 individuals died in mass shootings in the United States last year, according to Mass Shooting Tracker, a crowd-sourced website that defines a mass shooting as one in which at least 4 people have been shot but not necessarily killed (http://bit.ly/1MuHpVL). Compare that with 11 208, the number of people killed in homicides committed with firearms in 2013, the most recent year for which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has US data (http://1.usa.gov/1GEJ0TN).
The entire article is here.
Thursday, October 8, 2015
Self-injury Is the Eighth Leading Cause of Death in the United States
By Ian R. H. Rockett and Eric D. Caine
JAMA Psychiatry. Published online September 16, 2015.
This Viewpoint discusses the false dichotomy of separating suicides from fatal self-injurious acts that are labeled “accidents” or “unintentional” deaths.
Establishing a person’s intention to die has been a central element separating suicides from fatal self-injurious acts that are labeled “accidents” or “unintentional” deaths. We argue that this is a false dichotomy—certainly at the level of populations—that masks the overall magnitude of fatalities arising from deliberate, self-destructive behaviors. In so doing, it mutes the urgency for demanding effective preventive interventions and is particularly problematic as the nation experiences a persisting and growing epidemic of opioid and other drug-poisoning deaths. Firearm trauma and hanging/asphyxiation, the leading methods of suicide, typically generate ample forensic evidence for assuring accurate determinations by medical examiners and coroners. However, corroborative evidence is less available for poisoning, the third leading method of suicide overall, and first among women. Parenthetically, we acknowledge that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention use “unintentional injury" in lieu of the term accident for surveillance and prevention purposes. However, medical examiners and coroners remain bound by statutes in using “accident” as 1 of 6 manner-of-death entries (homicide, suicide, accident, undetermined, natural causes, and unknown) that alternatively appear on death certificates.
The entire article is here.
JAMA Psychiatry. Published online September 16, 2015.
This Viewpoint discusses the false dichotomy of separating suicides from fatal self-injurious acts that are labeled “accidents” or “unintentional” deaths.
Establishing a person’s intention to die has been a central element separating suicides from fatal self-injurious acts that are labeled “accidents” or “unintentional” deaths. We argue that this is a false dichotomy—certainly at the level of populations—that masks the overall magnitude of fatalities arising from deliberate, self-destructive behaviors. In so doing, it mutes the urgency for demanding effective preventive interventions and is particularly problematic as the nation experiences a persisting and growing epidemic of opioid and other drug-poisoning deaths. Firearm trauma and hanging/asphyxiation, the leading methods of suicide, typically generate ample forensic evidence for assuring accurate determinations by medical examiners and coroners. However, corroborative evidence is less available for poisoning, the third leading method of suicide overall, and first among women. Parenthetically, we acknowledge that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention use “unintentional injury" in lieu of the term accident for surveillance and prevention purposes. However, medical examiners and coroners remain bound by statutes in using “accident” as 1 of 6 manner-of-death entries (homicide, suicide, accident, undetermined, natural causes, and unknown) that alternatively appear on death certificates.
The entire article is here.
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