Abstract
Aotearoa needs to maintain and strengthen restrictions on firearms access. Targeted education and prevention programmes are also needed to keep firearm suicide rates falling and reverse the increase in firearm assaults.
Our new study, published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine, shows that although firearm suicide rates decreased after firearms legislation tightened in 1992, firearm assaults and related hospitalisations have risen since 2014. Māori and Pacific peoples are two to three times more likely than Europeans to be hospitalised due to firearm assault, and firearm injuries are more common in deprived and rural communities. Each year, firearm-related mortality and hospitalisation cost NZ$321m in lost life-years and NZ$1.48m in hospital care.