Author: Aimee Cunningham / Source: Science News
Gun deaths occur worldwide, but a new survey reveals the hot spots for those that occur outside of war zones.
In 2016, firearm-related homicides, suicides and accidental deaths were concentrated in just six countries: the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Guatemala.
Those nations accounted for about half of the estimated number of gun deaths unrelated to armed conflict.That’s just one takeaway from the first look at the global impact of interpersonal and self-inflicted gun violence on public health, published online August 28 in JAMA. Here’s the big picture:
Total global gun deaths rose from 1990 to 2016
Worldwide, an estimated 251,000 people died from guns due to homicide, suicide or unintentional injury in 2016. That’s up from an estimated 209,000 such firearm deaths in 1990, the team found by analyzing data from 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2016.
In 2016, 64 percent of gun-related deaths were homicides, 27 percent were suicides and 9 percent were accidental deaths.
But the rate of gun deaths dipped a bit
The researchers looked at the global rate of firearm deaths, adjusted for differences in the distribution of ages in a population. The rate decreased slightly, from 4.2 deaths per 100,000 in 1990 to 3.4 deaths per 100,000 in 2016, because the global population grew.
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