Top Stories - Posted by Carole Gan-UC Davis on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 9:31 - 12 Comments 
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...Stray bullets often injure women
Unlike the risk pattern for violence, which most frequently affects young men, most persons struck by stray bullets were outside the age range of 15 to 34 years. (Credit: iStockphoto)
UC DAVIS (US) — The first nationwide study of stray-bullet shootings shows more than 80 percent of the victims were unaware of the events leading to the gunfire and more than 40 percent were women.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
“Stray-bullet shootings are largely a byproduct of intentional violence, what we euphemistically call ‘collateral damage,’” says Garen Wintemute, professor of emergency medicine at the University of California, Davis. “Those who are shot have little or no warning; opportunities to take preventive measures once the shooting starts are limited. Unless we intend to bulletproof entire communities and their residents, we will only be able to prevent these shootings to the extent that we are able to prevent firearm violence.”
The findings are published as a letter in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
For the study, Wintemute used Google and Yahoo news alerting services and the news archives of GunPolicy.org to track news stories published between March 2008 and February 2009 that contained the phrase “stray bullet.”
He defined stray-bullet shootings as situations where a bullet escaped an intended sociogeographic space and resulted in the injury of at least one person, either from the gunshot itself or a secondary mechanism, such as an injury from glass sent flying by a stray bullet. Typical scenarios included violence, shooting sports, celebratory gunfire, and related activities. Cases also included shootings of bystanders who had no active role in a violent incident, and unintentional gunfire when the shooter and the person shot were not the same person.
Using these criteria, Wintemute and his colleagues identified 284 stray-bullet shootings events, in which 317 people were killed or injured. Most were incidental to violence. Unlike the risk pattern for violence, which most frequently affects young men, most persons struck by stray bullets were outside the age range of 15 to 34 years. Of the 65 people who died, most died on the day they were shot, and many died at the shooting scene.
One limitation of the current study is the reliance on media reports to quantify stray-bullet shootings, which may have resulted in an underestimation of their frequency. Some shootings may not have been reported in the media, and only partial information was available for others.
“Stray-bullet shootings create fear and insecurity in many communities,” says Wintemute. “People stay indoors, don’t let their children play outside, and alter the patterns of their daily lives to avoid being struck by a bullet meant for someone else. Yet no research has been conducted at the national level to explore the epidemiology of these shootings. Such information is often important to identifying preventive measures.”
The research was funded in part by the California Wellness Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Foundation.
More news from UC Davis: www.news.ucdavis.edu/
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12 Comments
W
Chris
But if it said 60% of stray bullet injuries happen to men, it wouldn’t be as emotionally charged. Or grab as many people’s attention. By saying “Women”, “Bullets”, and “Injury”, he is able to get people to read his article, and put them in the mindframe that guns are evil, women-hating machines that jump out and kill innocent bystanders with no provocation. I am afraid that Dr. Wintermute is not very interested in actual facts. Rather, he seems to be intent on pushing his own anti-gun agenda. His best tool in doing this is creating an atmoshpere of fear regarding firearms. It is sad, really. He seems like an intelligent person, aside from his irrational attitude towards inanimate objects.
An editor
I’m surprised the Journal of the AMA accepted a study based on internet searches. That doesn’t seem very scholarly. It’s also interesting to see such blatantly deceitful phrasing and misrepresentation of fact coming from an organization other than Fox News.
DS
Indeed, bad journalism. Headline should read “Stray bullets often injure men; less often, women.” And based on Internet searches??? Really!
Keebler from CGN
Using the statistics in the article, men are 50% more likely to be hit by stray bullets than women. Why is the article titled the way it is? Also, I’d like to acknowledge that the purpose of the ‘research’ is to create data to justify more gun controls. Might as well be honest. If we COULD remove guns from the hands of those likely to misuse them, would that really make us safer from those same hands? Here in Canada, domestic violence statistics show that of 32,000 female victims in 2006, thirty four were injured with firearms. Stopping violence is a good idea, but when will you people address the larger issues of causation instead of pursuing your sick gun fetish?
Baz
It doesn’t surprise me the AMA spews garbage statistics like these.
Don’t they require you to mark the area of your injury with a felt pen before surgery so they don’t remove the wrong organ or something?
Just because your rich parents put you through a fancy school doesn’t mean you’re not incompetent.
Marcel B.
Skewing stats to fit your gun-banning agenda, how original.
3strokes
Ban women (from appearing in public.)
“a bullet excaped an intended sociogeographic space and resulted in the injury of at least one person.” Bad bullet, excaping like that. The person pulling the trigger had nothing to do with it, of course.
Edward Teach
I guess that’s what we get for letting women roam free in our society! They might actually come to represent up to 50% of the statistics from a random event!
I blame Liberal Arts programs for this barrage of stupefying nonsense…
TheDman
Next groundbreaking study: Nearly half of the people who get crapped on by birds are women!
3strokes
But more than 50% of the birds are male, thus confirming Nature’s unequal targeting techniques.
Ban birds.
Hmm – Headline reads “Stray bullets often injure women.” Byline reads, “more than 40 percent were women.” Wouldn’t a better headline be “Stray bullets often injure men”??