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To the Editor: One of the most significant and disturbing findings of Ms Fingerhut and colleagues¹ is that, although the numbers of youth homicides and youth firearm homicides are declining, the trend is that guns are responsible for an increasing proportion of the killings.

Three scenarios involving the presence of firearms at the time of youth assaults are consistent with this trend, and one or more may help explain it (Table 1).

Table appears in full text version. Table. Hypothetical Scenarios Illustrating the Effects of Gun Use Based on Recent Youth Homicide Data*

Scenario 1.

The percentage of assaults at which firearms are present has increased. This scenario assumes that the lethality of gun assaults is 0.20 (20 in 100 such assaults cause death) and that the lethality of nongun assaults is 0.005 (0.5 in 100 cause death) (J. L. Annest, PhD, written communication, August 1998). When the proportion of all homicides caused by guns is . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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