Firearms have surpassed motor vehicles as the leading cause of traumatic death in the United States, researchers at the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program said recently. Garen Wintemute, an emergency room physician and public-health epidemiologist at the UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center, published the findings in a report titled "Trauma in Transition: Trends in Deaths from Firearm and Motor Vehicle Injuries." Based on provisional mortality data released by the National Center for Health Statistics, the report shows that the death rate from motor vehicle injuries peaked in 1969, declining by nearly half through 1993. In contrast, the report shows that in 1993 the death rate from firearm injuries reached its highest level since 1932. The increase in the firearm death rate is primarily attributable to an increase in homicides, which increased by 41 percent from 1984 to 1993. "Based on our findings, there will be nearly 3 million more shootings -- fatal and nonfatal -- in America from 1993 to 2000," says Wintemute.