Friday, August 14, 2015

- Firearm Prevalence and Homicides of Law Enforcement Officers in the United States //American Public Health Association

So much for the NRA's claim that an armed society is a safe society.  More guns, more cop killings.  And I would hazard a guess that the more guns the more likely police are to shoot.  - gwc
American Public Health Association - Firearm Prevalence and Homicides of Law Enforcement Officers in the United States

Objectives. In the United States, state firearm ownership has been correlated with homicide rates. More than 90% of homicides of law enforcement officers   are committed with firearms. We examined the relationship between state firearm ownership rates and law enforcement officers occupational homicide rates.

Methods. We obtained the number law enforcement officers killed from 1996 to 2010 from a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) database. We calculated homicide rates per state as the number of officers killed per number of law enforcement officers per state, obtained from another FBI database. We obtained the mean household firearm ownership for each state from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

Results. Using Poisson regression and controlling for factors known to affect homicide rates, we associated firearm ownership with the homicide rates for law enforcement officers (incidence rate ratio = 1.044; P = .005); our results were supported by cross-sectional and longitudinal sensitivity analyses. LEO homicide rates were 3 times higher in states with high firearm ownership compared with states with low firearm ownership.

Conclusions. High public gun ownership is a risk for occupational mortality for law enforcement officers in the United States. States could consider methods for reducing firearm ownership as a way to reduce occupational deaths of LEOs. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print August 13, 2015: e1–e7. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302749)

Read More: http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302749Objectives. In the United States, state firearm ownership has been correlated with homicide rates. More than 90% of homicides of law enforcement officers (LEOs) are committed with firearms. We examined the relationship between state firearm ownership rates and LEO occupational homicide rates.

Methods. We obtained the number LEOs killed from 1996 to 2010 from a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) database. We calculated homicide rates per state as the number of officers killed per number of LEOs per state, obtained from another FBI database. We obtained the mean household firearm ownership for each state from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.

Results. Using Poisson regression and controlling for factors known to affect homicide rates, we associated firearm ownership with the homicide rates for LEOs (incidence rate ratio = 1.044; P = .005); our results were supported by cross-sectional and longitudinal sensitivity analyses. LEO homicide rates were 3 times higher in states with high firearm ownership compared with states with low firearm ownership.

Conclusions. High public gun ownership is a risk for occupational mortality for LEOs in the United States. States could consider methods for reducing firearm ownership as a way to reduce occupational deaths of LEOs. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print August 13, 2015: e1–e7. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302749)


Read More: http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302749

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