Nearly one in three weapon injuries occur outside combat

Widespread availability of military weaponry in various regions may be an important obstacle to human development. However, relatively few data exist about how military weapons are used in such settings. Using the wound database of the International Committee of the Red Cross Meddings and colleagues explore the circumstances of weapons injuries and who was injured in two separate studies. In Cambodia, Meddings and O'Connor (p 412) found that the incidence of injury after the departure of a United Nations peacekeeping force exceeded that before the peacekeeping operation. Thirty percent of weapon injuries were unrelated to interfactional combat. Most commonly they were firearms injuries inflicted intentionally on civilians. Michael et al studied weapons injuries (classified as combat and non-combat related) in a region of Afghanistan that experienced a transition from effective peace to intensive fighting (p 415). The incidence of non-combat related injuries was initially high and declined dramatically during the intense military campaign, only to rise again afterwards.

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