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Characterizing Intent of Firearm Injuries by Number of Bullet Wounds.
Saskia R Vos1, Steven A Sumner1, Katherine A Fowler1
1National Centers for Injury Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
|April 12, 2025
Summary
The number of bullet wounds can help classify firearm injury intent. Homicides show significantly more wounds than suicides or unintentional injuries, aiding prevention efforts.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Forensic Science
- Injury Epidemiology
Background:
- Classifying firearm injury intent (homicide, suicide, unintentional) is crucial for prevention research.
- Rule-based approaches increasingly use bullet wound counts to infer intent when data is limited.
- The National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) provides detailed firearm injury data.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine evidence supporting the use of bullet wound counts for determining firearm injury intent.
- To analyze NVDRS data to assess the relationship between the number of bullet wounds and injury intent.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 2003-2021 NVDRS data on fatal firearm injuries.
- Statistical significance testing using ANOVA and Tukey's Honest Significant Difference Test to compare average bullet wound counts across injury intents.
Main Results:
- A total of 299,362 fatal firearm injury decedents were analyzed.
- Average bullet wounds differed significantly by intent: suicide (1.02), unintentional (1.01), and homicide (2.72) (p<0.01).
- Homicide decedents had significantly more wounds than both unintentional injury and suicide decedents.
Conclusions:
- The number of bullet wounds is a potentially valuable indicator for classifying firearm injury intent, especially in cases of interpersonal assault.
- This metric is particularly useful when other supporting information for medical coding is unavailable.
- Accurate intent classification of firearm injuries is vital for effective public health surveillance and prevention strategies.
