Is unemployment a major reason for firearm attacks in rural South Africa?

Abstract

In South Africa, firearms are increasingly used in interpersonal and factional violence. In a five year period (1987 - 1992), gunshot wounds of the torso increased by 300% in KwaZulu-Natal. During the same period, King Edward VIII Hospital in Durban recorded a mortality rate for firearm-related injuries of eight times that for stab wounds and "direct admissions" to the mortuary, three times as common in cases of gunshot wounds compared with stab wounds.