Gun Baby Gun: A Bloody Journey Into the World of the Gun (50 page)

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Authors: Iain Overton

Tags: #Social Science, #Criminology, #Anthropology, #Cultural

BOOK: Gun Baby Gun: A Bloody Journey Into the World of the Gun
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Chapter 2: The Dead

1
.

http://www.gunbabygun.com/gun-baby-gun/global-numbers-killed-gun-examined/

2
.

http://www.genevadeclaration.org/measurability/global-burden-of-armed-violence/global-burden-of-armed-violence-2011.html

3
.

http://www.genevadeclaration.org/fileadmin/docs/Indicators/Public_Health_Approach_to_Armed_Violence_Indicators.pdf

4
.

http://www.unodc.org/documents/gsh/pdfs/2014_GLOBAL_HOMICIDE_BOOK_web.pdf
– this reports states that firearms account for four out of every ten homicides at the global level but offers no data to back this claim up. The Small Arms Survey estimates that 90 per cent of deaths in conflict are from guns, so saying five out of ten homicides are gun-related seems a reasonable estimate.

5
.

http://www.jhsph.edu/research/centers-and-institutes/johns-hopkins-center-for-gun-policy-and-research/publications/IPV_Guns.pdf

6
.

http://www.globalissues.org/article/78/small-arms-they-cause-90-of-civilian-casualties

7
.

Interview with World Health Organization suicide researchers.

8
.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/06/11/gun-violence-and-mass-shootings-myths-facts-and-solutions/
;
http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html
;
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/injury.htm

9
.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/15/san-pedro-sula-honduras-most-violent
; according to the Citizen Council on Public Safety and Criminal Justice, nineteen of the twenty cities with the highest homicide rates in the world are in Latin America.

10
.

M. Peden,
Second Annual Report of the National Injury Surveillance System. Violence and Injury Surveillance Initiative, South Africa: October 2001
. Cited in:
http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/8/4/262.full#xref-ref-5-1

11
.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/sep/17/gun-crime-statistics-by-us-state
.

12
.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jul/22/gun-homicides-ownership-world-list
;
http://pt.igarape.org.br
– over 34,000 people being killed
by firearm in one year has been recorded, three times that of the US gun homicide rate.

13
.

Violence Observatory at the National Autonomous University of Honduras (NAUH). Across Honduras, between 2005 and 2012 there was a 93 per cent increase in the homicide rate – from 46.6 per 100,000 to 90.4 per 100,000:
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/homicide.html

14
.

Honduras is 283 per cent worse than the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean. There were 7,172 homicides in 2012 there. This is a rate of 90.4 per 100,000. The average rate that year in Latin America and the Caribbean was 23.6:
http://aoav.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Crime-and-Violence-in-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean.pdf
; US deaths stood at 5.2 in 2011:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm

15
.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/15/san-pedro-sula-honduras-most-violent
; data shown to me by the San Pedro Sula morgue showed there to be 1,971 homicides in the region of San Pedro Sula in 2013 – data published on
www.gunbabygun.com

16
.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119026/guns-fueling-immigration-central-america-come-us

17
.

This is for ‘Regional San Pedro Sula’ – data from the Ministerio Público and posted on
http://www.gunbabygun.com/gun-baby-gun/san-pedro-sula-data-dangerous-city-earth/

Chapter 3: The Wounded

1
.

http://www.propublica.org/article/why-dont-we-know-how-many-people-are-shot-each-year-in-america
– these numbers include only injuries caused by violent assault, not accidents, self-inflicted injuries or shootings by police;
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8

2
.

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Seven-people-treated-gunshot-wounds-Plymouth-s/story-22761113-detail/story.html

3
.

http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-kingdom

4
.

http://www.childrensdefense.org
; the comparison numbers work out at 32,223 in Iraq and 15,438 in Afghanistan (from US military personnel wounded in action in Iraq and Afghanistan as of 5 March 2012; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2008-2009. ‘Fatal Injury Reports.’ Accessed using the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). US Department of Health and Human Services).

5
.

Marie Crandall et al., ‘Trauma Deserts: Distance from a Trauma Center, Transport Times, and Mortality from Gunshot Wounds in Chicago’,
American Journal of Public Health
, 103, 6 June 2013, pp. 1103–9.

6
.

One South African study showed up to 40 per cent of trauma patients arrive at hospital in their own vehicle or in other modes of transport. In other parts of the world, it’s been estimated this figure might be as high as 90 per cent.

7
.

A study published in November 2013 showed that clothing presented a greater risk of indirect fracture and a greater severity of those fractures produced. It also suggested that clothing increases infection rates, as the clothing is drawn into the wound, ‘acting as a nidus for infection’;
http://www.josr-online.com/content/pdf/1749-799X-8-42.pdf

8
.

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0100-72032013000900008&script=sci_arttext

9
.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1072751509016184

10
.

http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/159/7/683.full

11
.

http://www.irinnews.org/printreport.aspx?reportid=79241

12
.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1570575/

13
.

‘La Méthode de Traicter les playes Faictes par Harquebutes et Aultres Bastons de Feu’. Paré also developed ways to tie off veins and arteries, making thigh amputations possible, and was one of the first to note how maggots could be used to clean wounds.

14
.

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/florence-nightingale-passionate-statistician

15
.

http://www.historynet.com/minie-ball
;
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/the-bullet-that-changed-history/?_r=0

16
.

https://www.armyheritage.org/education-and-programs/educational-resources/education-materials-index/50-information/soldier-stories/290-civilwarmedicine

17
.

http://afids.org/publications/PDF/CRI/Prevention%20and%20Management%20of%20CRI%20-4-%20-%20History.pdf

18
.

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/josephlister.aspx

19
.

Vincent J. Cirillo,
Bullets and Bacilli: The Spanish-American War and Military Medicine
(New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2004), p. 30.

20
.

R. M. Hardaway, ‘Wound Shock: A History of Its Study and Treatment by Military surgeons’,
Mil. Med
., 169, 4, 2004, cited in
http://afids.org/publications/PDF/CRI/Prevention%20and%20Management%20of%20CRI%20-4-%20-%20History.pdf/view

21
.

http://afids.org/publications/PDF/CRI/Prevention%20and%20Management%20of%20CRI%20-4-%20-%20History.pdf

22
.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zs3wpv4

23
.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1570575/

24
.

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/themes/war.aspx

25
.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/health/st-marys-adopts-army-tactics-to-save-lives-of-gun-and-knife-victims-8893928.html

26
.

http://www.thelancet.com/crash-2

27
.

http://www.popsci.com/article/technology/how-simple-new-invention-seals-gunshot-wound-15-seconds

28
.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129623.000-gunshot-victims-to-be-suspended-between-life-and-death.html

29
.

http://journals.lww.com/jtrauma/Abstract/2014/01000/Unrelenting_violence___An_analysis_of_6,322.2.aspx
; a total of 6,322 patients were treated and inpatient costs were put at $115 million.

30
.

http://journals.lww.com/annalsplasticsurgery/Abstract/2012/04000/Outcomes_of_Complex_Gunshot_Wounds_to_the_Hand_and.11.aspx

31
.

http://journals.lww.com/annalsplasticsurgery/Abstract/2012/04000/Gunshot_Wounds_to_the_Face__Level_I_Urban_Trauma.12.aspx

32
.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12616051

33
.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-12-21/shootings-costing-u-s-174-billion-show-burden-of-gun-violence.html
;
http://www.pire.org/documents/GSWcost2010.pdf

34
.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2013/01/14/how-guns-and-violence-cost-every-american-564-in-2010/

35
.

World Health Organization and World Bank, World Report on Disability (Geneva: WHO, 2011). A 2005 survey revealed that fewer than half of all countries had gun violence rehabilitation programmes.

36
.

R. L. Leavitt (ed.),
Cross-cultural Rehabilitation: An International Perspective
(London: W. B. Saunders, 1999), p. 99.

37
.

World Health Organization, Community Based Rehabilitation: CBR Guidelines (Geneva: WHO, 2010).

38
.

http://www.ippnw.org/pdf/research-kenya-who-pays-price.pdf

39
.

http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/ficap/resourcebook/pdf/monograph.pdf

Chapter 4: The Suicidal

1
.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2743457/WHO-calls-action-reduce-global-suicide-rate-800-000-year.html

2
.

http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/
;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-29060238
;
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/suicide_datasheet-a.pdf

3
.

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/05/24/suicides-account-for-most-gun-deaths/

4
.

Across the US, in 2010, the gun suicide rate was 6.3 per 100,000 people, compared with 3.6 per 100,000 for gun homicides:
http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/dataRestriction_inj.html

5
.

According to the WISQARS Injury Mortality Report, Alaska has a rate of
15.34 per 100,000 population, New Jersey has a rate of 1.94 per 100,000 population.

6
.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3553611

7
.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr63/nvsr63_03.pdf

8
.

In 2011, 93 people shot themselves in the UK (out of 6,045 suicides). That year 19,766 shot themselves in US (out of 38,285):
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-kingdom
and
http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states

9
.

https://aoav.org.uk/2014/homicides-in-central-america-up-99-per-cent/

10
.

http://www.injepijournal.com/content/1/1/6/abstract

11
.

http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/H-Research_Notes/SAS-Research-Note-9.pdf

12
.

E. G. Richardson and D. Hemenway, ‘Homicide, Suicide, and Unintentional Firearm Fatality: Comparing the United States with Other High-income Countries, 2003’,
Journal of Trauma
, 70, 2011, pp. 238–43.

13
.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7391258

14
.

C. E. Rhyne, D. I. Templer, L. G. Brown and N. B. Peters, ‘Dimensions of Suicide: Perceptions of Lethality, Time and Agony’,
Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior
, 25, 3, 1995; cited in
http://lostallhope.com/suicide-methods/statistics-most-lethal-methods

15
.

My research was helped enormously by Scott Anderson’s excellent
New York Times
report on this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/magazine/06suicide-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

16
.

The addition of suicide barrier to a bridge in Washington DC lowered not just the number of suicides that occurred on that bridge, but also the overall suicide rate (meaning those people didn’t just go and find another bridge to jump from).

17
.

A study published in 2007 by Small Arms Survey estimated that there were 3.4 million firearms in private households across the country. The Defence and Sport Ministry, on the other hand, the same year put the figure at 2.2 million. Of this number, 535,000 were army weapons, either in the possession of current or retired soldiers, or hired out to gun clubs.

18
.

Of all Swiss men that kill themselves, about one in three shoot themselves. Women are more likely to choose less certain methods – such as poisoning, or using a sharp implement – while men choose the more lethal courses of action.

19
.

http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/gun-control-myths-realities

20
.

http://www.law.harvard.edu/students/orgs/jlpp/Vol30_No2_KatesMauseronline.pdf

21
.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23897090

22
.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21034205

23
.

http://andrewleigh.org/pdf/GunBuyback_Panel.pdf
; even the US Military
Suicide Research Consortium has found that ‘studies demonstrate that method substitution is rare.’ And that ‘the majority of individuals (close to 95 per cent) who attempt suicide but are prevented from using their preferred method do not die by suicide’.

24
.

Trends seen in Austria, Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and the UK, to name some. One survey concluded: ‘male firearm suicide rates declined following the introduction of restrictive firearms regulations in Canada’.
http://injury-prevention.bmj.com/content/16/4/247.short?g=w_ip_gun_sidetab

25
.

http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/fact-sheets/1999/suicide-and-firearms.aspx

26
.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1489848/#__ffn_sectitle

27
.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/07/04/specials/hemingway-obit.html

28
.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14374296

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