Gun-related injuries decrease during NRA conventions, study finds

Gun-related injuries and deaths drop significantly during the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual conference, according to a new analysis published by the The New England Journal of Medicine.

The study’s authors, Anupam Jena of Harvard University and Andrew Olenski of Columbia University, used private health insurance data to compare the rates of firearms injuries during the convention to those three weeks before and three weeks after the gatherings.

The analysis covers the period from 2007 until 2015.

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What they found is that gun-related injuries decreased by an average of 63 percent in the states where conventions were being held, and a 20 percent reduction in gun-related injuries nationally during the conventions.

The analysis suggests that gun-related injuries drop when gun owners — even experienced ones — are put in a place where they might not be as likely to use firearms, such as the NRA convention.

However, there was no reduction in gun-related crime during the conventions, according to the study.

“These findings are consistent with reductions in firearm injuries occurring as a result of lower rates of firearm use during the brief period when many firearm owners and owners of places where firearms are used may be attending an NRA convention,” Jena and Olenski write.

“Our results suggest that firearm-safety concerns and risks of injury are relevant even among experienced gun owners.”

Gun safety has emerged as an issue of intense public debate in recent weeks after a mass shooting at a South Florida high school left 17 people dead and 14 others injured.

That attack prompted widespread calls for tighter gun restrictions, as well as increased scrutiny of the NRA, the powerful gun rights group that has vehemently lobbied against new gun control measures.