Understanding Gun Violence

It’s difficult to follow the logic of many in the United States who make decisions based on repressed fears and misinformation fed to them over many years.  Prejudice does not seek out facts, because staying the dark feels safe, especially when being informed threatens one’s self esteem.  None-the-less, this seems odd to many of us who find more relief in facts than in the delusion of fantasy.

Gun enthusiasts often maintain that guns are not a serious factor in shooting deaths.  I have even heard some say they believe more guns will protect us.  Statistics do not bear out this fantasy.  Documented evidence shows 98.3% of the time guns are used offensively, not defensively (FBI).  That means the hope of being saved by a good person with a gun is an historically unlikely event.  Only 1.7% of the time are guns actually fired as defense against an attack. We are 50 times more likely to be hurt by a gun than saved by one.  

 

Unless you are a gun owner.  Because a gun owner is 3 times more likely to die from a gun, those in possession are 150 times more likely to be hurt by a gun than saved by it.  Note: for every 111 Americans killed daily in the US, only 1 is attributed to law enforcement gun use (bradyunited.org).  While over 40,000 people are killed each year by gun violence in the US, only about 300 of them are killed in defense for safety (FBI).

 

I have found that non-thinkers will also often ignore more than 50 years of research showing whenever gun safety protocols are enacted, shooting deaths go down.  Note records of Canada (by 50%), Australia (by 95%), or Japan, the country with the fewest gun deaths per capita.  

Japan, which has strict laws for obtaining firearms, seldom has more than 10 shooting deaths a year in a population of 127 million people.  In other words, The United States has as many gun deaths per capita every 2 hours that Japan has in a year.  In fact, more children are killed by firearms in the US every day than in all of Japan in 6 months.

If Japanese civilians want to own a gun, they must attend an all-day class, pass a written test, and achieve at least 95% accuracy during a shooting-range test.  They have to pass a mental-health evaluation, as well as a background check.

By contrast, 40% of guns are sold in the US without a background check, easily obtainable by the mentally ill, and there is no training required.

Norway has 1/10 the gun deaths per capita as the US.  Australia and the United Kingdom reduced gun deaths through buy-back programs.  Canada cut theirs in half simply by requiring registration.  Other countries, such as Norway and Thailand, attribute fewer gun deaths to a cultural attitude of respect for each other as citizens.

Although most shooting deaths in the US are from handguns, automatic rifles are the weapon of choice for most mass killings.  Since 85% of killings in mass shootings are executed with assault rifles, it is no wonder that mass shooting deaths went down when such weapons were banned from 1994 to 2004. (Gifford Law Center).

There are lots of real-world successes in managing gun-deaths.  The United States has historically enjoyed respect from many nations for a number of reasons, but seems quite satisfied to be leader of the world in allowing the shooting of its own citizens, adults and children, without employing proven methods to stop it.