WHEN BULLETS DONT KILL - A NEW SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM TARGETS FIREARM-INJURIES

THE MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH has created the first st atewide surveillance system in the nation that tracks both fatal and n onfatal weapon injuries. The authors summarize findings for 1994 and d iscuss their public health implications. Suicides were the leading cau se of firearm fatality, while self-inflicted injuries accounted for on ly 3% of nonfatal firearm injuries. Risk of violence-related injuries varied dramatically across the state. in Boston, one in 38 black male teenagers ages 15 to 19 was shot or stabbed in 1994, in contrast to on e in 56,000 for white females of any age living in suburban communitie s. In Boston, non-Hispanic black male teenagers were at 41 times highe r risk than white male teenagers for gun injuries. Shooting homicides increased sixfold during the late 1980s among black Boston mates, whil e homicides by other means remained stable. In other Massachusetts tit les, injury rates were higher among 20 to 24-year-olds than among teen agers, and, in some areas, incidence rates were as high or higher amon g Hispanic males than among non-Hispanic black males. Between 1985 and 1994, the proportion of firearm injuries caused by semiautomatic pist ols increased from 23% to 52%, according to police ballistics data.