Whichever side of the gun control debate you fall, there is no denying that the United States has a serious problem with gun violence. The following statistics, provided by the Brady Campaign and the Center for Disease control, illustrate this fact:
Dewey Cornell published an article in Washington Post in June 2014 that provides some further insight into statistics and arguments about the effectiveness of gun control laws. The article can be found here (Source), but the main points are given below:
- One in three people in the U.S. know someone who has been shot.
- On average, 32 Americans are murdered with guns every day and 140 are treated for a gun assault in an emergency room.
- Every day on average, 51 people kill themselves with a firearm, and 45 people are shot or killed in an accident with a gun.
- The U.S. firearm homicide rate is 20 times higher than the combined rates of 22 countries that are our peers in wealth and population.
- A gun in the home is 22 times more likely to be used to kill or injure in a domestic homicide, suicide, or unintentional shooting than to be used in self-defense. (Source)
Dewey Cornell published an article in Washington Post in June 2014 that provides some further insight into statistics and arguments about the effectiveness of gun control laws. The article can be found here (Source), but the main points are given below:
- Though gun violence is unbelievable high in the United States, levels of gun violence here are not increasing.
- School shootings are statistically rare, compared to the 300 shootings that happen here each day.
- Gun violence is not directly due to mental illness--there are no studies that show a majority of mass shootings are committed by someone with a mental illness.
- Laws that restrict high risk individuals from obtaining guns have been useful in other countries in reducing gun violence.
"GUN VIOLENCE IS THE #1 KILLER FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS AGES 15-34." -gsgv.org