On Nonfatal Firearm Injuries

In my post “On Licensing and Training [guns]” I looked at data from the CDC to see if there really was an epidemic of accidental gun deaths that justified mandated government firearms training. In the post I said that I narrowed my focus to unintentional gun deaths because: “death is the most serious, and least ambiguous type of injury.”

While that’s still true, in the spirit of completeness, and to perhaps further illustrate my point, I decided to look at the unintentional nonfatal gun injury data.

The following data is from the CDC’s WISQARS Nonfatal Injury Reports which has data from as recently as 2009. I queried the WISQARS data for all unintentional gun injuries for all ages and all dispositions (the status of the injured person when released from the emergency room).

The WISQARS data shows that in 2009 (latest data available) there were a total of 18,610 unintentional nonfatal gun injuries.

2009, Unintentional Firearm Nonfatal Injuries

Not even one-percent of the 2009 population suffered an unintentional nonfatal gun injury; hardly an epidemic.

When you parse the WISQARS data further you find that the majority of the injuries (64%) were not serious enough to require hospitalization or extensive medical treatment.

2009, Unintentional Firearm Nonfatal Injuries | Disposition: Treated and Released

Even if you look at the injury rate over time (2001 is as far back as the WISQARS data goes) the injury rate has been consistently low.

Unintentional Nonfatal Firearms Injuries 2001-2009

The dip in 2006 – just 14,678 injuries – is interesting, as is the steady climb back up to the 18,000 range between 2007 and 2009. Though it’s that not surprising, since it was between 2007 and 2009 that reports of higher gun sales started surfacing. With increased gun ownership one would expect to see a more gun injuries; at least for a bit.

With anything that caries the risk of injury, the more people who take part, the more injuries you’re going to have. After a period though there is either a decline, or leveling off of injures as people either get better or stop participating.

Compared to nonfatal gun injuries, in 2009 471 times as many people – well over 8 million (2.8% of the population) – had a nonfatal fall injury.

2009, Unintentional Fall Nonfatal Injuries

It would seem that you are more likely to be injured (and killed) from an accidental fall then you are from an accident involving a gun.

Again, the available data does not support the argument that gun owners (new or old) are so inept that they need to be forced by the government to get training. Nor does it support the claim that guns are unreasonably dangerous and should be banned outright.