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Kansas City Experiences Rise In Unintentional Firearms Injuries

Elana Gordon
/
KCUR

Firearms related deaths among Kansas City residents have remained steady over the last decade. While that’s still unsettling, health officials have identified an especially troublesome trend.

Over the last decade, homicide rates have gone down in Kansas City. Even so, about 100 residents are killed each year from guns. That breaks down to about two people every week.

A new health department report found that most, if not all of those deaths are intentional, whether that be from homicide or suicide. Dr. Rex Archer, director of the city’s health department, reviewed the department’s firearms report with a city council committee. He said one alarming change has been the rise in unintentional injuries from firearms.

“We’re seeing a doubling basically of unintentional injury rates from firearms,” Dr. Archer said. “And the most likely hypothesis is that there are more guns that are not being kept in safe ways in places.”

Dr. Archer told council members he’s looking to develop some interventions with the help of local doctors who specialize in gun safety.

Credit Kansas City Missouri Health Department
The Kansas City Missouri Health Department recently came out with a new report, reviewing firearm deaths of Kansas City, Missouri residents between 2002 and 2012.

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