Highest Firearm Mortality Rate among Young Men is Associated with Race and Education

Firearm mortality is a leading, and largely avoidable, cause of death in the USA, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. Canadian and Mexican scientists aimed to assess the changes over time and demographic determinants of firearm deaths in these four countries between 1990 and 2015.

They extracted medically-certified deaths and underlying population denominators to calculate the age-specific and sex-specific firearm deaths and the risk of firearm mortality at the national and subnational level, by education for all four countries, and by race or ethnicity for the USA and Brazil.

In each country, firearm mortality was highest among men aged 15–34 years, accounting for up to half of the total risk of death in that age group. During the study period, firearm mortality risks increased in Mexico and Brazil but decreased in the USA and Colombia, with marked national and subnational geographical variation. Young men with low educational attainment were at increased risk of firearm homicide in all four countries, and in the USA and Brazil, black and brown men, respectively, were at the highest risk.

Read and download full article published in The Lancet.