John Hopkins study shows hospital shootings rare www.privateofficer.com

Baltimore MD Sept 20 2012  A person is more likely to get struck bylightening than shot while at a hospital, according to new research by JohnsHopkins.
Investigators at Hopkinsreviewed 11 years of data and found that 30 percent of hospital shootingsoccurred in emergency rooms. Nearly 50 percent of those shootings involved asecurity officer's gun - either stolen or used by a security officer.
The study looked at 154 shootings at hospitals, resulting in253 deaths or injuries. The shootings were difficult to prevent because theyinvolved a "determined shooter," said Dr. Gabe Kelen, M.D., the leadauthor of the report, and the director of the Johns Hopkins Department ofEmergency Medicine.
The study found that most perpetrators had a personalrelationship with victims.
The report was published Sept. 18 in the online version ofthe Annals of Emergency Medicine.
Common motives for shootings were grudge or revenge,suicide. and euthanizing an ill relative.
The report is published two years after a shooting at Hopkins. In thatshooting, Paul Warren Pardus shot a doctor and then killed his ill mother andhimself.
The Hopkins researchers said that specialized training forlaw enforcement and security personnel, such as proper securing of firearms,may prove a more effective deterrent to future shootings t han technologies,such as magnetometers.
They said no hospital is immune to a shooting.
Source:Baltimore Sun