Firearm fatalities. A preliminary study report from Iran

During the one-year period from March 2002 to March 2003 there were 89 firearm fatalities investigated by the Legal Medicine Organization of Iran in Tehran. We determined the characteristics of these 89 firearm deaths which comprised 0.83% of all postmortem examinations. Of these, 60.7% were homicides, 30.3% suicides, 4.5% accidental, and 4.5% unclassifiable. Most victims were young male. Military rifles were responsible for almost all suicides, whereas in homicide handguns were the preferred weapons. The most common site of entrance wounds in suicides were the under the chin (37%) and chest (25.9%). In homicide group, 42.6% of entrance wounds were located in the head. The suicidal gunshots were fired from contact/near contact range in 84.6% while this was the case in only two cases of the homicides. All but one of the suicides were committed at the garrisons or police stations. The unique pattern of suicide that was found in this series was not similar to that reported in earlier studies. We believe our pattern of firearm fatalities must be in great part due to the Iran’s strict gun control regulations and cultural background.