Half of all global deaths from gun violence occur in six countries in the Western Hemisphere, according to a new study that exposes trends in fatal shootings, particularly in the cause of death.
Brazil had the most firearm-related deaths in 2016 with 43,200, followed by the United States with 37,200 and Mexico with 15,400, according to data compiled by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. The study, entitled “Global Mortality From Firearms, 1990-2016,” was published on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association and offers a new glimpse into a highly charged issue that in many instances, including in the U.S., can suffer from incomplete information.
Rounding out the top five countries for gun violence is Venezuela with 12,800 deaths and Guatemala with 5,090.
By standardizing gun fatalities across countries with vastly different systems for accounting for deaths, the study’s authors hope to expose the most significant sources of gun violence and also highlight countries where policies have succeeded.
“This study confirms what many have been claiming for years — that gun violence is one of the greatest public health crises of our time,” Mohsen Naghavi, a professor in global health at the University of Washington and the study’s first author, said in an accompanying statement. “There are no simple antidotes to address this health problem. The tragedy of each firearm-related death will continue until reasonable and reasoned leaders come together to address the issue.”
Though the global death rate from gun violence decreased slightly during the study’s 26-year time frame, the total number of deaths increased from 209,000 in 1990 to 251,00 in 2016. Study authors attribute the death rate decrease largely to global population growth during that time — an increase from more than 5 billion in 1990 to 7.6 billion now, according to U.N. figures.
The cause of death varied widely around the globe: 64 percent were homicides, 27 percent were suicides and 9 percent were accidental injuries. The U.S. is 30th overall for the rate of homicides by firearm. It ranks second internationally for firearm-related suicides at 6.4 deaths per 100,000, behind only the Danish territory of Greenland with 22 deaths per 100,000.
Men comprise the vast majority of gun violence cases, accounting for 87 percent or 218,900 total global firearm-related deaths in 2016, with young men aged 20 to 24 comprising 34,700 of those deaths.
Though the institute compiles deaths related to terrorism, it excluded those from this study, along with deaths from conflicts, executions and shootings by law enforcement. Study authors say some mass shootings were included on a case-by-case basis depending on whether the respective government considered it an act of terrorism. For example, the shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in June 2016, and the one at a concert on the Las Vegas Strip in October 2017, were included because local authorities deemed them homicides. The 2015 attacks on military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee, perpetrated by a man who said he was inspired by the Islamic State group, were not included because they were deemed a terrorist attack.
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El Salvador witnessed the highest rate of firearm deaths with almost 40 for every 100,000 of its citizens, according to the University of Washington study. By contrast Singapore had the fewest with 0.1 deaths per 100,000.
Research regarding gun deaths has become politically charged, particularly in the U.S. Legislation passed earlier this year cleared the way for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study gun violence after decades of Congress’ blocking federal agencies from doing so, though experts question whether simply granting permission to conduct research will make any difference.
“People have a lot of opinions about firearm-related deaths that are often in isolation from what’s actually happening in other parts of the world,” says Christopher Murray, the institute’s director. “It’s an important starting point for people to have a common understanding about the facts when we think about what can be done.”
The study’s results identified places around the globe that appear to have made progress in limiting gun deaths, Murray says, including in Australia and Brazil, which have witnessed some decreases.
“It seems to be related to actual legislation,” Murray says.
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Study: Brazil, U.S., Mexico Lead the World in Gun Deaths originally appeared on usnews.com
