![]() ![]() 23 We also reviewed legal criminal codes of states pertaining to firearms to capture any codes not resulting from the key word search. We performed searches using various combinations of the key words alcohol, intoxication, firearm, gun, liquor(s), alcoholic, and bar using methods previously described. We used Westlaw and LexisNexis to conduct on online search of the criminal codes in existence in all 50 U.S. This research is especially timely given recent state legislation allowing the carrying of concealed weapons in establishments that serve alcohol. 25 Given the success of regulating the use of motor vehicles while intoxicated, we sought to determine the prevalence and distribution of state and federal legislation regulating the intersection of alcohol and firearms by performing a 50-state survey. 24 This definition of controlled substances explicitly excludes alcohol, wines, and other distilled spirits. There is a federal restriction on selling or otherwise disposing of firearms to an individual who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance, as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act. Each year, almost two million criminal offenses occur by an offender who is under the influence of alcohol at the time of the offense (about 36% of all offenders), 23 and a policy effort that effectively restricts the use of firearms while intoxicated may result in the prevention of a range of violent crimes. Such efforts might also prevent other violence-related outcomes. 20, 21 Violations of these laws carry clear legal penalties for drivers who have consumed alcohol past the proscribed level, to “intoxication.” 22 Similar reductions in firearm-related fatalities could result from alcohol research efforts comparable to those already devoted to motor vehicle crashes. states and the District of Columbia (DC) have laws making it a crime to drive with a blood alcohol concentration at or above a proscribed level: 0.08 milligrams per deciliter. Proscribed blood alcohol concentration levels and legal penalties for driving while intoxicated are the result of decades of scientific study establishing a driver's crash risk relative to the amount of alcohol the driver has consumed. 17 Whereas drunk driving restrictions have reduced the magnitude of alcohol-related motor vehicle crash death considerably, it is unclear to what degree such legal restrictions have been undertaken to reduce the problem of alcohol-related firearm death. households contain firearms, 15 and opportunities to obtain a firearm exist for adolescents 16 and adults alike. 13 Similarly, there are about 250 million guns in the U.S., 14 and each year more than 30,000 Americans die in shootings, making firearms the second leading cause of injury death in the U.S. There are about 250 million motor vehicles in the U.S., 12 and each year more than 40,000 Americans die in traffic crashes, making motor vehicle crash the leading cause of injury death in the U.S. The disparity in attention that has been paid to these two types of alcohol-involved fatalities-those from motor vehicle crashes and those from firearms-is even more surprising when considering more closely their similarities in terms of magnitude. 10, 11 A nearly equal one-fifth of alcohol-related injury deaths are the result of firearm injuries 8 however, little research has focused on alcohol use and shootings. ![]() public health achievements of the 20th century by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This work has effectively decreased the number of traffic fatalities involving alcohol, 9 and the prevention of drinking and driving has been hailed as one of the top 10 U.S. ![]() 8 As a result, the great majority of the research dedicated to understanding alcohol's relationship to injury has focused on drunk driving. each year are due to motor vehicle crashes. 3 – 7 Roughly one-quarter of the alcohol-related injury deaths in the U.S. 1, 2 Owing to the considerable presence of alcohol in injury events of all types, alcohol's relationship to injury has been the subject of modern scientific investigation for an entire century. Injury is the leading cause of alcohol-related death in the United States, and alcohol is the leading risk factor for injury. ![]()
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