‘The young age of most of the shooters and victims shows what can happen when young people get their hands on a gun,’ said Hemenway. ‘Young people with guns are a danger to themselves, but even more friends and family.’In the vast majority of shootings that were other-inflicted, the shooter was young, four out of five armed men under 25, and one in three were under 15 years. The shooters were well known to the victims: 47 percent of the shooters were tied to the victim, most often the victim’s brother. Another 43 percent of the shooters in these incidents were friends of the victim. Most of the remaining gunmen were acquaintances: less than 2 percent were foreigners.
The study included an analysis of 2005 data from the wave of the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity. The sample consisted of 15 638 adults aged 65 years, including 3927 who are between 90 and 99 years, and 2794 that were 100 years old. The participants were divided into 22 provinces of mainland China.
More than three quarters of young people under 15 who die in accidents are firearms fired by someone else, usually another young man, according to a new study conducted by Harvard School of Public Health . He is the first multi-state study of fires the fatal shot unintentionally. The study is published online and will be published in July 2010, issue of the journal Accident Analysis Printing and Prevention.