Although the misuse of firearms
is necessary to the occurrence of firearm violence, there are other contributing
factors beyond simply firearms themselves that might also be modified to prevent
firearm violence. Alcohol is one such key modifiable factor.
To explore this, we
undertook a 40-year (1975-2014) systematic literature review with meta-analysis.
One large group of studies showed that over one third of firearm violence decedents
had acutely consumed alcohol and over one fourth had heavily consumed alcohol prior
to their deaths.
Another large group of studies showed that alcohol was significantly
associated with firearm use as a suicide means. Two controlled studies showed that
gun injury after drinking, especially heavy drinking, was statistically significant
among self-inflicted firearm injury victims.
A small group of studies investigated
the intersection of alcohol and firearms laws and alcohol outlets and firearm violence.
One of these controlled studies found that off-premise outlets selling takeout alcohol
were significantly associated with firearm assault.
Additional controlled, population-level
risk factor and intervention studies, including randomized trials of which only
1 was identified, are needed.
Policies that rezone off-premise alcohol outlets,
proscribe blood alcohol levels and enhance penalties for carrying or using firearms
while intoxicated, and consider prior drunk driving convictions as a more precise
criterion for disqualifying persons from the purchase or possession of firearms
deserve further study.
Purchase full article at: http://goo.gl/ZIxMts
Correspondence to Dr. Charles C. Branas, Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 423 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (e-mail: cbranas@upenn.edu).
Epidemiol Rev. 2016 Jan 24. pii: mxv010.
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