U.S. Gun Injury Cases Last Year Topped Pre-COVID Levels

For the fourth year in a row, rates of gun injuries stayed above levels seen before the pandemic, a new government report shows, Robin Foster reported for United Press International (UPI).

The data on gun injuries, which was collected from ambulance calls in 27 states through September 2023, looked to shed more light on the gun injuries that do not result in deaths or hospitalizations. I Photo: Fibonacci Blue Wikimedia Commons

Race played a key role in who saw those higher rates of gun violence in 2023, the researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted.

"Annual rates among Black and Hispanic persons remained elevated through 2023; by 2023 rates in other racial and ethnic groups returned to pre-pandemic levels," the study authors reported Thursday in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

"The most substantial rate increases occurred in more urban counties and counties with greater income inequality, higher unemployment, and those with more severe housing problems," the researchers noted in the report.

The data on gun injuries, which was collected from ambulance calls in 27 states through September 2023, looked to shed more light on the gun injuries that do not result in deaths or hospitalizations.

After linking the ambulance data to county-level demographics data, the researchers found rates of firearm injuries "were consistently highest" in counties with severe housing issues, which also saw the biggest increases compared with 2019.