Demographics and injuries in assaults from drive-by shootings seen in US emergency departments 1993-2020

There has been minimal research on drive-by shootings since the 1990s. It was the purpose of this study to investigate the demographics and injury patterns of drive-by shootings across the entire US using a national database.

The Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research Firearm Injury Surveillance Study 1993-2020 (ICPSR 38574) data for 1993 through 2020 was analyzed using statistical analyses accounting for the stratified and weighted nature of the data.

There were an estimated 63,882 emergency department visits due to drive-by shootings. The drive-by group was younger compared to the no-drive-by group (average age 24.5 years vs. 28.7 years - p less than 10-4). Patients injured in drive-by shootings were more prevalent in medium and large size hospitals. There was a lower percentage of White (17.9% vs. 42.3%) and a higher percentage of Hispanic (30.1% vs. 13.1%) peoples in the drive-by group compared to the no-drive-by group (p = 0.0009). The head/neck (14.3% vs. 3.5%) and lower extremity (35.5% vs. 25.5%) were more commonly injured in the drive-by group compared to the no-drive by group (p = 0.0008). While those in the drive-by group were admitted to the hospital more often (43.9% vs. 32.7%), there was no difference in the percentage of fatalities between the two groups (4.4% drive-by, 4.9% no-drive-by).

This study encompasses both rural and urban areas, all races, and both sexes. These national estimates give health care providers and health facility administrators important demographic information. While both drive-by and no-drive-by shootings increased from 2014 onward, the average annual increase was much greater for the drive-by group (22.7%) compared to the non-drive-by group (8.6%). This data provides helpful information that could be useful when analyzing prevention strategies and firearm legislation and their impact on drive-by shootings.