How Wisconsin Ranks For Gun-Related Hospitalizations

WISCONSIN — Wisconsin ranks among states with the least residents who have been hospitalized with firearm injuries over a 16-year period, according to a recently released report.

7 in every 100,000 Wisconsin residents were hospitalized with firearm injuries between 2000 and 2016, a new database developed by The Rand Corp. shows. Nationwide, nearly 548,000 people were hospitalized with similar injuries during that period.

The report, released last week by the nonprofit nonpartisan think tank, hopes to fill a gap in state-level firearm injury data.

Currently, there is no single resource in the country that offers this kind of data, according to researchers.

“This lack of information limits our ability to answer basic questions about gun violence, such as whether trends in gun injuries are changing over time, or whether existing strategies to reduce firearm-related harms are effective,” researchers said in a news release.

The report was released less than five months into 2021, a year in which Americans have seen a staggering number of mass shootings.

On March 16, a single gunman targeted three Atlanta-area massage businesses, killing eight people. Only a week later, a gunman opened fire in a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, killing 10 people before police apprehended the suspect. Last month, yet another gunman opened fire in an Indianapolis FedEx facility, killing eight people before killing himself.

RELATED: Indianapolis FedEx Shooting: Police Identify 8 Victims
Boulder Grocery Store Shooting Victims Identified
Women Killed In Atlanta Spa Shooting Rampage Identified

On May 1, a 62-year-old attacker walked into the Duck Creek Kitchen and Bar and shot two people at a waiter station at close range with a 9 mm handgun, then shot a man outside the restaurant, Brown County Sheriff Todd Delain said. A team from the Green Bay Police Department shot and killed the attacker on the north side of the building.

Officials identified the two men fatally shot as 32-year-old Ian Simpson, and 35-year-old Jacob Bartel. A third man, who is 28 years old, was also shot and injured. The suspect was identified as 62-year-old Bruce Pofahl.

On March 16 there was a shooting at Roundy's Distribution Center in Waukesha County. Two workers were killed in the shooting on March 16. Kevin Kloth, 50, of Germantown and Kevin Schneider, 39, of West Allis were identified as the victims. Fraron Cornelius, 41, of Wauwatosa shot and killed two co-workers at the distribution center, according to police. His car was found in Milwaukee County, and a pursuit ensued. The car crashed, and the suspect died at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

A mass shooting was reported at Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa that November 2020. A 15-year-old shooter injured eight people, including seven adults and one teenager.

In all, there have been 187 mass shootings in the United States in 2021, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The definition of a mass shooting is when at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter, according to the archive, which tracks mass shootings in the United States.

To develop its report, Rand pulled data from several sources, including summaries of hospital inpatient data collected through state health departments. The estimates in the report do not include emergency department visits that do not result in a hospitalization, or gunshot injuries for which hospital-based medical care is not sought.

In 2016, the national average of hospitalizations due to firearm injury was 10 per every 100,000 residents.

Wisconsin was lower, recording 7 hospitalizations per every 100,000 residents.

The following states had the highest average number of hospitalizations due to firearm injury, according to the report:

• Louisiana: 24 per 100,000 residents
• Tennessee: 18 per 100,000 residents
• Alabama, Missouri and Maryland: 16 per 100,000 residents

These states had the lowest number:

• Hawaii: 2 per 100,000 residents
• Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine: 3 per 100,000 residents
• Iowa and North Dakota: 4 per 100,000 residents

See the full Firearm Injury Hospitalizations in America report.