This presentation will review data findings from the first quarter of data collection from a piloted national reporting system for firearm fatalities. The system has been designed by ten organizations across the country under the coordination of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center (HICRC) and the Medical College of Wisconsin. Data on approximately 2,500 deaths occurring in six states and three cities throughout calendar year 2000 will be abstracted in the full pilot. The presentation will introduce the data elements collected by the system, present rates of substantive completion for selected variables during the first quarter, and analyze differences across reporting sources on incident type (suicide, homicide, accident, law enforcement-related, or unknown) and precipitating circumstance. More detailed data on victims, offenders, circumstances, and weapons are being collected in the pilot than has previously been available in existing national data sources. Data are stored in an incident-based, relational database. The presentation will briefly describe the incidence of particular injury types during the first quarter that could not otherwise be fully identified in existing data sources, such as murder/suicide cases, victims shot by fully automatic weapons, victims of intimate partner-related violence (including nonpartner victims, such as children or bystanders, killed in the incident), school-related shootings, suicide pacts, and work-related shootings. A lengthy document outlining the reporting system's data elements and coding protocols is currently available by contacting HICRC. A purpose of the session is to solicit audience comment on the system before it is revised for expansion to other sites in 2001.
Learning Objectives: Participants attending the presentation will be able to 1.) identify the data elements collected in a piloted firearm fatality reporting system 2.) compare the capacity of the new reporting system to supply policy-relevant data to that of existing national data systems for firearms
Keywords: Firearms, Surveillance
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: none
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.