Gunshot wounds fell almost 40 percent during mid-1990s

WASHINGTON - The number of gunshot wounds from all types of crime fell almost 40 percent from 1993 through 1997, the Justice Department reported Sunday.

A report by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics expanded on the widely publicized decline in gun homicides during the mid-1990s. That trend has been attributed to a drop in crack cocaine wars, the focus on illegal guns by big city police, the aging of baby boomers past crime-prone years and longer prison sentences for violent criminals.

Citing data gathered from hospital emergency departments and death certificates by the federal Centers for Disease Control, the bureau said gunshot wounds from any type of crime fell 39 percent, from 64,100 to 39,400, during the five-year period.

The CDC's Firearm Injury Surveillance Study showed that 62 percent of nonfatal firearm injuries treated in hospital emergency rooms were assaults, 17 percent were accidents, 6 percent were suicide attempts, 1 percent resulted from police use of firearms, and 13 percent had unknown causes.

The bureau's household survey of crime victims found that about 80 percent of gunshot wound victims during the five-year period sought medical treatment at hospitals. That survey excludes murders, because victims cannot be interviewed.

Homicides involving firearms fell 27 percent, from 18,300 to 13,300, during the same period, the report said.

Other CDC data showed that 44 percent of firearm deaths were homicides, and there were an estimated 3.3 nonfatal gunshot wounds from assaults treated at emergency rooms for every gun homicide.