Small arms, major transgressions: Exploring homicidal deaths by firearms in city of Faisalabad, Pakistan.

Abstract

Objectives: To analyze the data regarding prevalence of homicidal deaths due to firearm. Study Design: Descriptive, Observational, Retrospective study. Setting: Postmortem unit of Allied Hospital Faisalabad. Period: From January 1st, 2017 to December 31st, 2017. Material & Methods: After approval, data was obtained from the duplicate copies of autopsy reports kept at the postmortem unit of Allied Hospital Faisalabad. The data was then entered on a pre-designed Performa. Results: During the year 2017, 80 cases of firearm were autopsied at the postmortem unit of Allied Hospital, Faisalabad, of which 78 were homicidal. Out of 78 cases autopsied, 67 (85.9%) were males & 11(14.1%) were females. The fatality rate was highest (46.2%) between 21-40 years whereas; the least affected age group was > 60 years (10.3%). Multiple body parts were mostly affected, the percentage being 47.4%. It is worth mentioning that out of 78 cases only one victim was shot by smooth bored weapon (1.3%)  while rest of them were hit by Rifled weaponries (98.7%). Most of the demises occurred at crime scenes which were more common during Morning & Evening between the months of October to March.  There is a significant association between cause of death with region of body affected in our study. Conclusion: Unfortunately, productive age group of our society is more exposed to gunshots with multiple regions enclosing vital organs of body are mostly inflicted.