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Health Indicator Report of Deaths due to Firearm-related Injury

Violence is a major public health concern throughout the United States.

Notes

This is Healthy New Jersey 2020 (HNJ2020) Objective IVP-2b.

Data Sources

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death File. CDC WONDER On-line Database accessed at [https://wonder.cdc.gov/Deaths-by-Underlying-Cause.html]
  • Death Certificate Database, Office of Vital Statistics and Registry, New Jersey Department of Health
  • Population Estimates, [https://www.nj.gov/labor/lpa/dmograph/est/est_index.html State Data Center], New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development

Definition

Deaths with a firearm-related injury as the underlying cause of death. ICD-10 codes: W32-W34 (unintentional), X72-X74 (suicide), X93-X95 (homicide), Y22-Y24 (undetermined intent), Y35.0 (legal intervention)

Numerator

Number of deaths due to firearm-related injuries of all intentions

Denominator

Total number of persons in the population

Healthy People Objective: Reduce firearm-related deaths

U.S. Target: 9.3 deaths per 100,000 population (age-adjusted)
State Target: 4.7 deaths per 100,000 population (age-adjusted)

Other Objectives

'''Revised Healthy New Jersey 2020 Objective IVP-2a''': Reduce the age-adjusted death rate due to firearm-related injuries per 100,000 standard population to 4.7 in the total population, 2.4 among Whites, 15.8 among Blacks, and 1.9 among Hispanics. '''Revised Healthy New Jersey 2020 Objective IVP-2b''': Reduce the death rate due to firearm-related injuries among males aged 15-19 years per 100,000 age- and gender-specific population to 9.5 among all racial/ethnic groups combined and 49.1 among Blacks. '''Original Healthy New Jersey 2020 Objective IVP-2a''': Reduce the age-adjusted death rate due to firearm-related injuries per 100,000 standard population to 4.7 in the total population, 2.4 among Whites, 15.8 among Blacks, and 3.6 among Hispanics. '''Original Healthy New Jersey 2020 Objective IVP-2b''': Reduce the death rate due to firearm-related injuries among males aged 15-19 years per 100,000 age- and gender-specific population to 13.7 among all racial/ethnic groups combined and 68.0 among Blacks. Targets were not set for race/ethnicity, sex, and/or age groups with numbers of deaths due to firearm-related injuries too small to calculate reliable rates.

How Are We Doing?

The Healthy New Jersey 2020 targets for age-adjusted death rates among the total population and Blacks were achieved by 2019 but rates rose above the targets in 2020. The targets for males aged 15-19 were achieved and remain below the targets through 2020. The firearm-related age-adjusted death rate among Blacks is more than 5 times the rates among Whites and Hispanics. County rates per 100,000 population (age-adjusted) range from a low of 1.8 in Bergen to a high of 12.9 in Salem (2016-2020).

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

New Jersey's age-adjusted death rate due to firearm-related injuries and the death rate among males aged 15-19 years are less than half the national rates.

What Is Being Done?

New Jersey already has some of the strictest firearm laws in the nation. In January, 2017, the Governor signed into law a revision of certain existing laws concerning domestic violence and firearms ([https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2016/Bills/PL16/91_.PDF P.L.2016, c.91]), which enhances protections for domestic violence victims by restricting access to firearms by a person convicted of a domestic violence crime or subject to a domestic violence restraining order. For female homicide victims, more than half of homicides are committed by a current or former intimate partner, and a majority of those deaths involve a firearm.[http://www.state.nj.us/health/chs/njvdrs/ ^1^] The Governor's Study Commission on Violence released a [https://www.nj.gov/oag/library/SCV-Final-Report--10-13-15.pdf report of recommendations] to the Governor on ways to combat all types of violence from a public health perspective in October, 2015. The New Jersey Department of Health maintains the [http://www.state.nj.us/health/chs/njvdrs/ New Jersey Violent Death Reporting System] (NJVDRS), a CDC-funded surveillance system that tracks suicides, homicides, unintentional firearm deaths, injury deaths of undetermined intent, and deaths by legal intervention and is used to educate public health and public safety professionals in the state and inform their interventions and decision-making, with the ultimate goal of reducing the incidence of violent deaths. NJVDRS is part of the [https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/datasources/nvdrs/index.html National Violent Death Reporting System].

Health Program Information

NJ Violent Death Reporting System: [http://www.nj.gov/health/chs/njvdrs/]
Page Content Updated On 10/03/2022, Published on 10/03/2022
The information provided above is from the Department of Health's NJSHAD web site (https://nj.gov/health/shad). The information published on this website may be reproduced without permission. Please use the following citation: " Retrieved Thu, 28 March 2024 9:08:25 from Department of Health, New Jersey State Health Assessment Data Web site: https://nj.gov/health/shad ".

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