Rates of gun injuries last year remained above levels seen before the COVID-19 pandemic for a fourth straight year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday, looking at data from ambulance calls in 27 states collected through September 2023. Last year's elevated rates come as many communities have seen rates of firearm violence improve in the wake of a surge during the initial years of the pandemic. Instead, only some groups have seen rates yet to fully recover from the surge.
"Annual rates among Black and Hispanic persons remained elevated through 2023; by 2023 rates in other racial and ethnic groups returned to prepandemic levels," the study's authors wrote in their article, published in the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Preliminary CDC data on gun deaths also show rates last year remained worse than in 2019 nationwide, despite a slowdown off of peak levels in 2020 and 2021. Thursday's report looked at data from emergency medical services systems collected by data firm Biospatial, which looked to shed more light on the gun injuries that do not result in deaths or hospitalizations.
Linking the data to county-level demographics data found rates of firearm injuries "were consistently highest" in counties with severe housing problems , which also saw the biggest increases compared with 2019. By income, rates were also highest in counties with the most income inequality and higher unemployment rates . Rates remained highest in males compare.
