Guns' real costs

[Ed Barrow]

Gun control is one hot topic that never seems to cool. Nevertheless, most of us "probably have no idea the number of gun-related incidents that occur every day," said University of Louisville physician Bill Smock, who created The Gun Shot Wound Registry 14 years ago to keep track of local incidents involving guns (homicides, suicides, assaults and accidents). Even he was surprised, Dr. Smock said.

His database, which was written about in the Southern Medical Journal, is reportedly one of only a few such comprehensive tracking systems. It monitors when shooting incidents occur, who the victims are, and how much it costs to provide their medical treatment. Most victims of gun violence, it turns out, are uninsured, and so academic medical centers -- such as UofL, which operates the only local hospital that treats severe gunshot wounds -- and others that provide indigent care end up spending far more to treat victims than they can ever expect to be repaid.

In Louisville, Dr. Smock accounted in 2008 for 419 gunshot cases. which ended with $18.3 million in charges. The average immediate care cost was more than $43,000 per victim. When Dr. Smock launched his database in 1996, he tallied 336 gunshot cases which cost $7.6 million to treat. It goes without saying, of course, that the cost for treating gunshot victims who suffer the most serious injuries -- permanent paralysis, for example -- can run into the millions over a single patient's lifetime.

So, when we read about or hear gun advocates and those who favor stricter gun controls duking it out over constitutional issues -- the right to bear arms -- we all should bear in mind what Dr. Smock and others are calling attention to: that gun violence is a very real and present public health hazard that is helping to traumatize an already ailing health care system.


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