Why Is This Important?

Violence is a major public health concern throughout the United States.

Definition

Deaths with a firearm-related injury as the underlying cause of death. ICD-10 codes: W32-W34 (unintentional), X72-X74 (suicide), X93-X95 (homicide), Y22-Y24 (undetermined intent), Y35.0 (legal intervention)

Data Sources

• Death Certificate Database, Office of Vital Statistics and Registry, New Jersey Department of Health
  (https://www.nj.gov/health/vital/)
• Population Estimates, State Data Center, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development
  (https://www.nj.gov/labor/labormarketinformation/demographics/population-household-estimates/)
• Underlying Cause of Death, CDC WONDER On-line Database, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  (https://wonder.cdc.gov/Deaths-by-Underlying-Cause.html)

How the Measure is Calculated

How Are We Doing?

The firearm-related age-adjusted death rate among Blacks is more than 5 times the rates among Whites and Hispanics. County rates per 100,000 population (age-adjusted) range from a low of 1.8 in Bergen to a high of 12.9 in Salem (2016-2020).

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

New Jersey's age-adjusted death rate due to firearm-related injuries and the rate among New Jersey males aged 15-19 years old are about one-third the corresponding national rates.

What Is Being Done?

New Jersey already has some of the strictest firearm laws in the nation. In January, 2017, the Governor signed into law a revision of certain existing laws concerning domestic violence and firearms (P.L.2016, c.91), which enhances protections for domestic violence victims by restricting access to firearms by a person convicted of a domestic violence crime or subject to a domestic violence restraining order. For female homicide victims, more than half of homicides are committed by a current or former intimate partner, and a majority of those deaths involve a firearm.¹

The Governor's Study Commission on Violence released a report of recommendations to the Governor on ways to combat all types of violence from a public health perspective in October, 2015.

The New Jersey Department of Health maintains the New Jersey Violent Death Reporting System (NJVDRS), a CDC-funded surveillance system that tracks suicides, homicides, unintentional firearm deaths, injury deaths of undetermined intent, and deaths by legal intervention and is used to educate public health and public safety professionals in the state and inform their interventions and decision-making, with the ultimate goal of reducing the incidence of violent deaths. NJVDRS is part of the National Violent Death Reporting System.

More Resources

CDC Violence Prevention Info: https://www.cdc.gov/violence-prevention/

National Violent Death Reporting System: https://www.cdc.gov/nvdrs/about/index.html

NJ State Police Firearms Info: https://www.njsp.org/firearms/index.shtml

NJ Governor's Study Commission on Violence Report: http://nj.gov/oag/newsreleases15/pr20151013a.html

Health Program Information

NJ Violent Death Reporting System: http://www.nj.gov/health/chs/njvdrs/

Footnote References

1. New Jersey Violent Death Reporting System data, http://www.state.nj.us/health/chs/njvdrs/