The COVID-19 Pandemic Exposes Another Commercial Determinant of Health: The Global Firearm Industry

INTRODUCTION

As a global public health community, we are constantly confronting new attacks on our health and safety. Public health officials have been forced to reassess how to address, research, and fight threats to our health in the face of a changing environment. One of these persisting threats is firearm violence. Firearms contribute to more than 250,000 recorded deaths each year worldwide and 230 per 100,000 years of life lost; these numbers suffer from potentially serious underreporting.¹ Unfortunately, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) suffer a disproportionate burden of firearm violence. Research has shown that 83% of all violence-related deaths occur in LMICs.² Moreover, in the United States, 90% of the burden of firearm violence falls on civilian populations, as compared to the 10% concentrated in armed conflict situations, and the societal costs of firearm violence have reached more than $150 billion annually.¹ As a private industry, gun producers and distributors play a major role in the growing availability of guns and, in turn, the severity …