Civilian gunshot wounds and ballistics: dispelling the myths.

This review outlines the foundations of ballistics and provides guidelines for the emergency care of those wounded by gunfire. It also describes the causes of recently increasing misinformation that is confusing and misleading trauma surgeons. Among these causes are an increasing firearm illiteracy, failure of the editorial and peer review in the trauma surgery literature to adequately evaluate wound ballistics papers, and widespread distortions promulgated by gun prohibitionist advocates. Solving these problems requires strict adherence to fundamental scientific method and the basic precepts of academic honesty and scholarly integrity.