Getting Disability Benefits for Injuries From a Gunshot Wound

While many gunshot victims are able to make substantial recoveries and return to work within weeks or months, those who experience severe complications from the wound that keep them from working full-time for at least a year might qualify for Social Security disability benefits.

Even in the most optimistic scenario, a gunshot will cause damage to the skin, muscles, tendons, or ligaments. While these soft-tissue injuries tend to heal quickly, the resulting scar tissue can cause substantial functional limitations with range of motion, strength, or flexibility. In some cases, these impairments don't become apparent until years after the initial injury.

Gunshot Wounds and the Blue Book Listing of Impairments

Many victims of gunshot wounds experience life-altering injuries. One of the most severe non-fatal outcomes results in damage to the spinal cord, which can cause paralysis or cognitive impairments involving speech or memory problems. Such serious injuries may qualify you for disability benefits by meeting a listing in Social Security's "Blue Book" of medical conditions.

The Blue Book—also called the Listing of Impairments—contains certain disorders that you can get disability for automatically, provided you have specific evidence in your medical records. For example, a gunshot that damages your spinal cord might be evaluated under listing 11.08, Spinal cord disorders, or listing 1.15, Disorders of the skeletal spine.

Depending on the nature and extent of your injuries, other listings that Social Security may consider when evaluating your disability application could include:

• listing 1.20 for gunshot wounds requiring amputation
• listing 1.21 for a soft tissue injury under regular surgical management
• listings 1.22 or 1.23 for non-healing or complex bone fractures
• listings 2.02, 2.03, or 2.04 or for vision loss
• listing 11.18 for traumatic brain injury, and
• listing 12.15 for trauma-related mental disorders.

Meeting the requirements of a listing can be tricky, however. Consider asking your doctor to provide a medical source statement showing how you meet (or equal) a listing.

Proving Your Residual Functional Capacity With Medical Evidence

Even if your condition isn't severe enough to meet the requirements of a Blue Book listing, you can still be eligible for benefits if your residual functional capacity (RFC), a description of your physical and mental abilities, shows that you can't perform any jobs. Social Security will review your medical records and your activities of daily living when assessing your RFC.

Your RFC will contain limitations on what you're able to do in a work setting. Any physical impairments you have, such as restrictions in movement caused by scar tissue at the bullet entrance or exit wound, will be reflected in your RFC. Social Security will address your ability to perform the following tasks:

• reaching, handling, and fingering
• lifting, carrying, pushing, and pulling
• sitting, standing, and walking, and
• climbing, balancing, kneeling, stooping, crouching, and crawling.

If you're receiving mental health treatment for issues related to your gunshot wound (like anxiety or PTSD), your RFC will contain additional limitations on how well you'd function at work with regards to:

• understanding, remembering, and carrying out both simple and detailed instructions
• maintaining attention and concentration for extended periods
• working in coordination with others
• interacting appropriately with coworkers, supervisors, and the general public
• maintaining adequate attendance and punctuality, and
• completing a workday without substantial interruption from psychological symptoms.

Depending on the evidence in your medical records, your RFC might contain other restrictions, such as an inability to work around loud noises that could trigger flashbacks or being off-task at work for 20% or more of the day due to pain.

Your treating physician can provide an RFC as well—Social Security values the opinions of medical professionals who've seen you on a regular basis and are therefore more likely to have special insight into any limitations or complications you have as a result of your injury. If you've established an ongoing relationship with one or more doctors, ask them to fill out an RFC form on your behalf. You can click on the thumbnail below to see an example of a helpful RFC statement from a doctor with a patient who is applying for disability based on complications from a gunshot injury.

Social Security uses your RFC to determine whether you could return to your past work or any other jobs in the national economy. For example, if your RFC states that you'd be expected to miss more than two days of work per month due to your medical condition, it's likely that a vocational expert will find that your RFC prevents any sort of gainful employment.

Gunshot Wounds Resulting From the Commission of a Felony

Somebody who is shot while committing a felony won't be eligible for disability benefits based on that impairment. But it can still make sense in that case to file for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) in order to take advantage of the "disability freeze." Social Security doesn't award benefits during the "frozen" earnings record, but future retirement benefits or dependent payments won't be reduced due to lack of income due to your disability.