A study of homicidal firearm injury cases in medico-legal autopsy

Firearm is fast becoming one of the very common type of weapon used in the cases of homicide. This study was conducted to find out the cause behind these killings along with their socio-economic background which may help the law enforcing agencies as well as the principle makers to formulate proper planning to minimize the same. In this study a total of 110 cases of fatal firearm injury were studied out of which 108 cases were homicidal firearm injury. Extremist violence and encounters accounts for 81.5% of the cases and in 13 (12.0%) cases the motive behind the killings could not be determined. Most of the victims were males from the middle class families, in their twenties and thirties, and were from rural areas. Rifled firearms were the most common type of weapons used.