GunsEpidemic of Firearm Injury Spurs New Wave of Research
Fifty-five years ago, America’s death toll from automobile crashes was sky-high. Nearly 50,000 people died every year from motor vehicle crashes, at a time when the nation’s population was much smaller than today. But with help from data generated by legions of researchers, the country’s policymakers and industry made changes that brought the number killed and injured down dramatically. Experts welcome new federal funding for more injury prevention research to reduce the toll of a leading cause of death while respecting Second Amendment rights.
Fifty-five years ago, America’s death toll from automobile crashes was sky-high. Nearly 50,000 people died every year from motor vehicle crashes, at a time when the nation’s population was much smaller than today.
But with help from data generated by legions of researchers, the country’s policymakers and industry made changes that brought the number killed and injured down dramatically.
Research led to changes in everything from road construction and driver’s license rules, to hospital trauma care, to laws and social norms about wearing seatbelts and driving while drunk or using a cell phone. University of Michigan researchers were at the forefront of this work.
Now, researchers hope the country can do the same thing for the nearly 40,000 deaths and tens of thousands of injuries that now result from firearms each year, including homicides, suicides and unintentional incidents.
Back in the Headlines
A spate of recent mass shooting incidents, and an announcement from the White House about new actions at the federal level, have brought the issue back into the spotlight amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the research effort is starting almost from scratch, because of a 25-year near-total hiatus on federal research funding for firearm-related studies due to political reasons.
A 2019 U-M Injury Prevention Center study found that on a per-death basis, funding for pediatric firearm research is 30 times lower than it would have to be to keep pace with research on other child health threats.
That’s despite the fact that since 2017, more Americans have died each year from firearm injuries than from the effects of motor vehicle crashes. Another U-M study showed that the rate of firearm death has risen sharply since 2015.
Using some of the scarce federal research funding available in recent years, U-M injury prevention researchers have worked to produce evidence to inform policies that strike a balance between preventing harm and respecting Second Amendment rights.
