UW research finds terrorist attacks with firearms more deadly

It appears there won’t be any serious attempt at cracking down on firearms in the U.S., even after the most deadly shooting in our country’s history.

But “exploratory” research lead by Dr. Robert Tessler with the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center gives us something to consider when it comes to just how deadly firearms can be during a terroristic attack.

The research found that terror attacks involving firearms were “four times as deadly” as other types of attacks in terms of fatalities, according to Tessler. And the number of terroristic attacks involving a firearm were higher in the U.S. compared to other high-income countries.

The study used information from The Global Terrorism Database between 2002 and 2016. The countries included in the study were the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Western Europe. The Database defines a terrorist attack as “use of illegal force and violence by a non-state actor to attain a political, economic, religious, or social goal through fear, coercion, or intimidation.”

The research found that “the U.S. had the highest proportion of terrorist attacks involving firearms among the countries compared — just over 20 percent of 329 recorded attacks.”

Within the study population, though firearms were used in less than 10 percent of “events,” they accounted for 55 percent of fatalities.