US Gun Violence by the Numbers

In the wake of the recent senseless death of an 8 year old with an Uzi automatic weapon at a gun club in Massachusetts,  it's critical that we as a nation recognize that this child's gun death was just one of the 5 kids under 10 years old and 83 Americans total that died that day and every day from gun violence. Clearly 8 year old Christopher Bizilj's gun death was entirely preventable and a result of adult negligence and irresponsibility. On the other hand it's hard to legislate common sense and we shouldn't need a law that prevents 8 year olds from using machine guns. That said this tragic death highlights a failed US gun policy that allows kids, criminals and terrorists to access military style weapons and handguns without any reasonable restrictions or even detection in 32 states where there isn't even a criminal background check requirement for all gun sales. Hence the United States is the gun violence capital of the world and here are the just a few of the startling numbers.

5 Average number of child deaths in gun-related accidents or suicide EVERY DAY

9 Number of kids under 19 years old killed by guns EVERYDAY

32 Number of states in the US that allow ANYONE to purchase firearms without an ID or criminal background check

40 Percent of gun sales in the US occur without an ID or background check requirement

40 Percent of American households that contain both children and guns

83 Average number of Americans killed by guns EVERYDAY

1,260 Average number of annual firearm homicides in the European Union (pop 376 million)

10,821 Average number of annual firearm homicides in the US (pop 282 million)

34,000 Average number of Americans killed by guns EVERY YEAR

$33,000 Average medical cost (80% uninsured) of a gun related death

$300,000 Average cost (80% uninsured) of a gun related injury

70,000 Average number of gun-related injuries EVERY YEAR

655,000 Number US service men and women killed in all Foreign Wars combined

1,035,000 Number of gun deaths in the US over the past 30 years

$4 million NRA contributions to George W. Bush's 2004 campaign

$18 million NRA contributions to Congressional candidates in the last four election cycles

$40 million NRA promised contributions to John McCain's 2008 Presidential campaign

$34 billion Annual US medical and productivity costs of gun injuries and deaths

Isn't it time that we enact uniform national gun laws and initiatives that promote and require gun safety and accountability on the part of gun owners, clubs, dealers, manufactures and law enforcement rather than the current gun policy, dictated by the special interest gun lobby, that allows unrestricted access to all guns by all people including kids, criminal and terrorists? If we did we could reduce the number of annual gun deaths and injuries to a fraction without any undue hardship on law abiding gun owners like myself.

Comments

[djkrlsn]

05:20 PM on 11/02/2008

2nd posting--in terms of suicide--Japan has a significantly higher suicide rate than the U S does even with draconian gun laws, same thing with Russia and several other countries.

[drvck70]

01:34 PM on 11/02/2008

Your statement that one can buy firearms in 32 states with no ID or background check is a complete fabrication, I've purchased firearms in Virginia, Carolina, Arkansas, and Louisiana as I've been a resident of all four the last 15 years. You CANNOT buy a firearm with presenting a valid DL in any of these states, which are considered to be the most liberal insofar as gun ownership is concerned, I cannot even drive 10 miles and purchase a handgun in Texas because I'm not a resident there, it has to be shipped to an FFL and I would be submitted to two background checks. Quit trying to scare people with this nonsense. We already have national gun laws, its called the 2nd, leave well enough alone.

[LeftRight]

09:11 PM on 10/31/2008

I want to believe your statistics, but I caught one GLARING problem, that showed the US population at 282 million. Remember the big hoopla a year or two ago that we were hitting 300 million???? I'm not saying that means all your statistics are wrong, but it's an easy idea to come to, considering Thirdpower's main comment about 40% of gun ownership should equate to 40% of gun crime.

[Thirdpower]

07:23 PM on 10/31/2008

Real numbers:

The US accounts for approximately 40% of civilian firearm ownership in the world. Since it's regularly claimed that guns cause crime, one would then expect the US to have 40% of the worlds firearm homicides or deaths.

IANSA states that there are about 1000 firearm deaths/day, 250 of which are of a military nature. The remainder are homicides (560), suicides (140), and unintentional (50).

So let's do some crunching.

US firearm homicides/day (34)/World firearm homicides/day (560)= 6.1%

A discrepancy of 33.9% if guns cause crime.

US firearm suicides/day (~46.5)/World firearm suicides (140) = 33.3%

A discrepancy of 6.7% if guns cause suicide.

US firearm unintentional and unknown deaths/day (2.77)/ World unintentional firearm deaths/day (50) = 5.5%

A discrepancy of 34.5%.

So the US is missing about 190 homicides, 10 suicides, and 17 unintentional deaths by firearm/ day according to the anti's own numbers. So while the US does have a higher number of suicides by firearm than many nations, it does not have higher suicides overall nor does it equal the percentage of ownership. The US also only accounts for about 1/20th of the firearm homicides and accidents when the anti logic says it should be 8x higher.

So since the private ownership of firearms isn't 'causing' firearm crime or deaths, isn't 'causing' crime of any sort, and industrialization isn't a common factor, perhaps there are other factors involved.