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Activity Number: 336
Type: Invited
Date/Time: Tuesday, August 2, 2016 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
Sponsor: Committee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights
Abstract #318006
Title: Collecting Data on Gun Violence: Why Is It So Hard and What Are We Missing?
Author(s): David Hemenway*
Companies: Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Keywords: firearms ; funding
Abstract:

The US public health problem related to firearms is large. In 2013, per day over 300 Americans were shot and more than 90 died. More American civilians have died from gunfire in the 21st century (2000-2013) than the combined sum of all US combat deaths in the entire 20th century. The US gun death rate is ten times higher than the combined rate of the other two dozen high-income democracies.

Unfortunately, gun research has been underfunded. An analysis of PubMed for articles on the ten leading causes of death to children aged 1-17 from 1991 and 2010 found that while firearms accounted for 12.6% of the deaths, articles about firearms accounted for less than 0.3% of the publications. There were only 25 publications about firearms in 1991 and 33 in 2009.

For the past two decades the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided almost no financial support for firearms research. Other federal funding agencies have not taken up the funding slack, nor have foundations.

Important data on firearms has either not been collected or has been withheld from researchers. For example, the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System no longer asks questions about firearms o


Authors who are presenting talks have a * after their name.

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