Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40240066›Full record

ArticleBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2025

Firearm availability and firearm incidents: quasi-experimental analysis using start of US hunting seasons.

Christopher M Worsham, Charles F Bray, Anupam B Jena

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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0 citing papers in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Christopher M WorshamDepartment of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Charles F BrayDepartment of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Anupam B JenaDepartment of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA jena@hcp.med.harvard.edu.ORCID 0000-0002-9734-5122

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectiveTo take advantage of the arbitrarily timed increase in firearm and ammunition availability brought on by the start of deer hunting seasons to study its impact on hunting, and importantly, non-hunting related firearm incidents.

designQuasi-experimental analysis using start of hunting season in United States.

settingPopulations of US states with highest number of hunting accidents reported in the Gun Violence Archive for deer hunting seasons between 2016 and 2019.

participants10 US states (Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Average per capita weekly rates of firearm incidents overall and among specified categories of firearm incidents in the periods before, during, and after the opening of deer hunting seasons combined into a single analysis across four years and 10 states, adjusting for state fixed effects.

resultsCompared with control periods before and after the opening period, the start of the hunting season was associated with a 12.3% relative increase in the rate of firearm incidents overall (absolute change 1.34-1.50 incidents per 10 million population; 95% confidence interval for relative change 3.0% to 21.6%, P<0.01). Relative increases were observed for incidents categorized as hunting incidents (absolute change <0.01-0.05 per 10 million; relative change 566%), suicide (0.70-0.77; 11.1%), incidents involving alcohol or other substances (0.07-0.13; 87.5%), domestic violence (0.13-0.16; 27.4%), defensive use (0.08-0.10; 27.8%), home invasion or robbery (0.13-0.17; 30.4%), and incidents related to firearm carry licenses (0.40-0.48; 19.4%). No differences were observed for incidents involving children or police officers.

conclusionsThe start of hunting season was associated with increased rates of hunting and non-hunting related firearm incidents, most plausibly because of the increased availability of firearms and ammunition. The results suggest that efforts to promote firearm safety at the beginning of hunting season could help reduce hunting and non-hunting related firearm incidents.

Indexed as

FirearmsGun ViolenceHuntingWounds, GunshotAnimalsDeerHumansSeasonsUnited States

Identifiers

PMID40240066
PMCPMC12001375

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.