A gun safety group that supports background checks for all firearms purchases has released some eye-opening statistics about an often-overlooked area of this issue: the number of people who survive being shot.
Everytown for Gun Safety reported that in 2017, more than 84,000 people in the United States were victims of a non-fatal gun injury. This translates to a rate of 230 victims per day, or one person every seven minutes.
The report’s assessment of who is more likely to get shot is no surprise to anyone who follows criminal justice. Males account for 87% of people getting treated at a hospital for a gunshot wound. When tracking by age, 15- to 24-year-olds make up 37% of hospital-treated gunshot victims — a figure far higher than that group’s proportion to the overall population.
A third measurement of non-fatal gunshot wounds — by race — also is not surprising, except for the incredibly high rate of Black victims.
Again using 2017 data, Everytown for Gun Safety reported 46,240 gun injuries among Black people. That translates to a per capita figure of 113 per 100,000.
This compares with 20,500 white shooting victims, or just 10 per 100,000. Latino figures were 13,200 victims, or 22 per 100,000.
As a side note, it is worth observing that the report says about half of the Black gunshot victims were wounded unintentionally or for an undetermined reason. Another 40%, about 21,600, were victims of assault, while 188 were self-inflicted wounds and 281 were victims of police shootings.
The point is that, even if some of the undetermined shootings turned out to include police involvement, these incidents are only a small part of the gun problem. Without trying to downplay officer-involved shootings, the numbers say the wider challenge is immense.
When it comes to ranking gunshot wounds by state, Mississippi is near the top of the list, as it is on so many lists that aren’t complimentary.
Mississippi ranks third nationally in per-capita non-fatal gun injuries. In 2017, the state’s hospitals reported treating 2,005 such cases, or 67 for every 100,000 people. The state trailed only Louisiana (4,397 victims, 93 per 100,000) and Alabama (3,422, 70 per 100,000).
It’s no surprise, though, that three neighboring Southern states lead the nation in this category, given the prevalence of guns in the Deep South and an almost worshipful attitude toward them.
America’s gun debate shows no sign of letting up, and solutions to this violence will not be easy on which to reach a consensus. In addition to universal background checks, Everytown for Gun Safety supports promoting secure firearms storage practices by gun owners and local “violence intervention programs” in an attempt to stop the cycle of violence.
“One of the strongest predictors of future violence for young people is surviving it,” the report says. “The risk that a young person who has been to the hospital for a firearm assault will be involved with future firearm violence is extremely high. ... Perhaps one of the most pernicious impacts of this daily injury toll is the way it contributes to a vicious cycle of violence: One of the strongest predictors of future violence for young people is surviving it.”
