Guns: 36 Countries Have Found Solutions
Since 9/11/2001, more than 400,000 Americans have been killed by guns. That is four times the number of Americans killed in the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the 1st Gulf War, the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War all combined. In 2014, 92 people per day were killed by guns in the United States, according to the CDC. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, over 10,000 children are killed or injured yearly with guns. Is the gun lobby’s de facto motto, “Children’s lives don’t matter?”
In the first nine months of 2015, there were 294 mass shootings of four or more people. Terrorists killed less than 1% of the Americans killed by guns since 9/11/2001 and most of those were on 9/11.
Among the developed countries, the United States has the highest death rate per capita from guns. A person is five times more likely to be killed with a gun in the US than in Canada, nine times more likely than in Germany, 42 times more likely than in Great Britain and 177 times more likely to than in Japan. Australia, which cracked down on guns, now has a gun homicide rate that is one-twentieth of the United States.
Massachusetts and New York have some of the most restrictive gun regulations and they have three to four gun deaths per 100,000 per year. Alaska and Louisiana have some of the least restrictive gun regulations and they have more than 19 gun deaths per 100,000 per year.
The US ranks first in guns per capita. Yemen is 2nd, Serbia is 3rd and Iraq is 4th. The US has 5% of the world population and 50% of the guns in the world.
Thirty-seven countries make up the developed world including United States, Canada, Western Europe, Japan and Australia. Thirty-six developed countries have found solutions to reducing gun deaths. Hence, it is an undeniable fact that solutions exist. The United States is the only developed country that has failed to find a solution. Unfortunately, the United States Congress has largely taken the position of the famous line in the movie, Gone with the Wind, “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!” This is unlikely to change until members of Congress suffer deaths from gun violence in their own families.
