अमूर्त

Evaluation of the unintentional firearm deaths and injuries in rural areas

Murat Alkan

When asked the reason of having a gun to millions of gun owners in the world, probably they would give the same answers such as for protection themselves, their family or place, recreation, security problems or hunting. This wide array of explanation sand the type of weapon they have chosen to own firearms depends on the place where they live weather rural or urban. Urban people mostly have handguns for protection whereas rural people generally use shotgun or rifle for protection and hunting. However, almost all around the world it is not hard to provide firearms through legal or illegal ways. Consequently, firearm-related injuries and deaths are quite common currently. Almost ten thousand people are injured and three thousand people are killed each year as a result of gunshot wounds. Firearms are also creates serious threat for children. According to some researchers in Turkey, gun accidents with rifle or shotgun mostly harm the people between the age 0-10. Since, their natural curiosity, children poke firearms which are at home and are substantial risk of exposure to firearm injury and death. In this research, a total of 261 unintentional gun and ammunition incidents were examined retrospectively which were occurred between the years 2001-2015 including 100 in Çorum, 21 in K?r?ehir, 55 in Yozgat, 30 in K?r?kkkale and 55 in Çank?r? rural areas in Turkey. Each incident file, were examined in terms of sex, education, occupation and the age of the victim, origin of the event, the type of weapon used, the entry hole location of the gunshot wound, the status of the license of the gun and the consequences of the incident.