Racial and Ethnic Differences In Non-Fatal Firearm Injuries, United States, 1993-2017

Although there has been much national discussion, both in scientific literature and popular press, and a growing scientific literature about firearm deaths, much less attention has been paid to non-fatal firearm injury that constitutes 70 percent of the victims of firearm violence. While rates of national fatal firearm mortality rates have stayed more or less stable in the U.S. since the turn of the twenty-first century, the rates of non-fatal firearm injury have, however, increased, driving the epidemic of firearm violence. Rates of non-fatal firearm injuries are inconsistent across the country, with substantial spatial heterogeneity changing over time.

The goal of this project was to understand the drivers of non-fatal firearm injury in order to guide efforts that may reduce related injuries. This study included four aims of analysis:

1. Document the state-specific (spatial) differences and the changes across time (temporal) of non-fatal firearm injury among all, by racial-ethnic groups and intents of injury.
2. Assess the state-level factors that influence these changes such as state-specific firearm laws and social characteristics (e.g., minority proportion, rates of unemployment, income inequality, suicide, divorce, firearm ownership, alcohol consumption, drug use, and non-firearm homicide).
3. Determine the individual socio-demographic and clinical factors that drive both spatial and time trends.
4. Determine if individual factors modify the spatio-temporal patterns of non-fatal firearm injury, and whether this explains racial-ethnic and intent differences.

The resulting datasets are at state-level analysis.