The Society of Trauma Nurses, in collaboration with the American Trauma Society, is once again pleased to present National Trauma Awareness Month. This year the theme is “Firearm Injury Prevention: Everyday, Everyone, Everywhere”.
Firearm Injury Prevention: Everyday, Everyone, Everywhere
This year’s focus is Firearm Injury Prevention. Deaths and injuries caused by firearms can happen in any community, to anyone, and at any time. According to the Association of State and Territorial Officials (ASTHO):
- Firearm injury and death claims the lives of eight children and 75 adults each day in the U.S.
- Over 39,773 people died as a result of firearm violence in 2017—one person every 13 minutes.
- That same year, almost two-thirds of all firearm-related deaths were suicides.
- Interpersonal violence accounts for approximately one-eighth of medical care spending on injury in the United States.