New York, Feb 26 (IANS): Firearms have overtaken car crashes as the leading cause of traumatic deaths in the US, the country's media outlet NPR reported, citing a new study.
According to the study published in the journal Trauma Surgery and Acute Care Open on Tuesday, firearm-related deaths are continuing to rise rapidly across the country, XInhua news agency reported.
The "years of potential life lost" for firearms was 1.42 million in 2018, compared with 1.34 million for car accidents, data showed.
Men made up 85.4 per cent of the total of the firearm deaths reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2018.
Researchers also found that older white males were most affected by suicide, and younger black males were most affected by homicide.