Tuesday, 04 May 2021 (YJC)_A study finds US Gun injuries put over a half-million people in hospitals from 2000 to 2016.
Tens of thousands of people are admitted to hospitals for gun injuries every year, according to a first-of-its-kind database that underscores how the societal costs of gun violence extend well beyond mortality.
Developed by researchers at the Rand Corp., a California-based think tank, the study found roughly 550,000 people were admitted for gunshot wounds from 2000 to 2016, representing billions of dollars in health-care costs annually, as well as untold pain and suffering.
The data comes as narrow Democratic control of Congress and the White House has ushered in hopes among advocates for new policies intended to curb gun violence in the United States. A spate of high-profile mass shootings in 2021 has ratcheted up pressure on lawmakers to act.
Much of the research on gun control deals with homicide and suicide data because state and federal governments typically keep detailed records of how and when people die. But injuries also exact a considerable economic and public health toll: Gun-related hospital visits account for an estimated $2.8 billion in health-care spending annually, as well as billions more when lost work and wages are factored in.
A 2017 study found that the average gunshot patient incurred hospital costs of more than $95,000. Shootings never stopped during the pandemic: 2020 was the deadliest gun violence year in decades
Precise numbers for those hospitalizations, however, have previously been unavailable. There’s no comprehensive national database of gunshot injuries, for instance. And as the Rand researchers found, the quality of hospitalization data varies widely from state to state.
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