In the
developed world, these levels of gun violence
are a
uniquely American problem. Here’s why.
America is an exceptional country when it comes to guns. It’s one of the few countries in which the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected. But America’s relationship with guns is unique in another crucial way: Among developed nations, the US is far and away the most violent — in large part due to the easy access many Americans have to firearms. These charts and maps show what that violence looks like compared with the rest of the world, why it happens, and why it’s such a tough problem to fix.
(The below is excerpted from this article. Please go here to view the full article and charts and maps: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts?utm_campaign=vox&utm_content=entry&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.)
1) America has six times as many firearm homicides as Canada, and nearly 16 times as many as Germany
2) America has 4.4 percent of the world’s population, but almost half of the civilian-owned guns around the world
3) There have been more than 1,500 mass shootings since Sandy Hook
4) On average, there is more than one mass shooting for each day in America
5) States with more guns have more gun deaths
6) It’s not just the US: Developed countries with more guns also have more gun deaths
7) States with tighter gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths
8) Still, gun homicides (like all homicides) have declined over the past couple decades
9) Most gun deaths are suicides
10) The states with the most guns report the most suicides
11) Guns allow people to kill themselves much more easily
12) Programs that limit access to guns have decreased suicides
13) Since the shooting of Michael Brown, police have killed at least 2,900 people
14) In states with more guns, more police officers are also killed on duty
15) Support for gun ownership has sharply increased since the early ’90s
16) High-profile shootings don’t appear to lead to more support for gun control
17) But specific gun control policies are fairly popular
Although Americans say they want to protect the right to bear arms, they’re very much supportive of many gun policy proposals — including some fairly contentious ideas, such as more background checks on private and gun show sales and banning semi-automatic and assault-style weapons, according to Pew Research Center surveys.
This type of contradiction isn’t exclusive to gun policy issues. For example, although most Americans in the past said they don’t like Obamacare, most of them also said they like the specific policies in the health-care law. Americans just don’t like some policy ideas until you get specific.
For people who believe the empirical evidence that more guns mean more violence, this contradiction is the source of a lot of frustration. Americans by and large support policies that reduce access to guns. But once these policies are proposed, they’re broadly spun by politicians and pundits into attempts to “take away your guns.” So nothing gets done, and preventable deaths keep occurring.
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