Guns overtake car crashes as leading cause of death by trauma in US: Study

Gun-related deaths have overtaken deaths from road accidents as the leading cause of death by trauma in the US, a new study found using data from the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).

The study, published in the Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open journal on Tuesday, used the CDC’s standard formula to calculate years of potential life lost, and found that in 2017, 1.44 million years of potential life was lost due to firearm-related deaths, as opposed to 1.37 million years of potential life lost due to car crashes in the same year. The study also found a similar trend for 2018, the last year for which data was available.

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The study found that suicides accounted for the most number of gun-related deaths in US, with white men being victims in a majority of cases. It also noted that suicides were rising in the US: while suicides were fewer than 19,000 in 2009, the number rose to more than 24,000 in 2018.

Gun-related homicide deaths were also on the rise, with black men being the victims in a majority of cases.

Among women, the study noted that firearm homicides had risen by 10% over the last 10 years, while firearm suicides had risen by 31% in the same period.

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“Previous studies have shown that firearm ownership, mass shootings, injuries and death are more of a problem in the USA as compared with other developed countries,” the authors observed, adding, “The demand for total freedom and the second amendment have resulted in high access to firearms in this country and this is undisputable.”

“The main argument is that the right to bear arms to prevent injury or to defend against aggressors may result in a small number of preventable deaths is a plausible theory, however, the data reveal that the resulting access to firearms has equated to magnitudes of death due to firearm suicides in the same individuals demanding access to firearms,” the authors further said.

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Summing up their findings, the researchers wrote, “Firearms are now the leading cause of YPLL [years of potential life lost] in trauma. Firearm deaths have overtaken MVC [motor vehicle crashes] as the mechanism for the main cause of potential years of life lost since 2017.”

Indeed, the widespread availability of firearms is an issue that is quite unique to the US and gun violence deaths in the country have also soared of late. Data from the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) shows that President Joe Biden’s first year in office was far worse in terms of gun violence than former President Donald Trump’s first year. As per GVA data, the US recorded 20,783 deaths from murders, accidental homicides, and justifiable self-defence homicides involving guns in 2021, far higher than the tally of 15,727 in Trump’s first year of office in 2017.