The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject.(March 2014) |
Gun-related violence is violence against a person committed with the use of a firearm to inflict a gunshot wound. Gun violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable) and assault with a deadly weapon. Depending on the jurisdiction, suicide or attempted suicide may also be considered a crime. Non-criminal violence includes accidental or unintentional injury and death (except in cases of criminal negligence). Also generally included in gun violence statistics are military or para-military activities.
According to GunPolicy.org, 75 percent of the world's 875 million guns are civilian controlled. [2] [ better source needed ] Roughly half of these guns (48 percent) are in the United States, which has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world. [3] Globally, millions are wounded or killed by the use of guns. [2] Assault by firearm resulted in 180,000 deaths in 2013, up from 128,000 deaths in 1990. [4] There were additionally 47,000 unintentional firearm-related deaths in 2013. [4]
Levels of gun-related violence vary greatly among geographical regions, countries, and even sub-nationally. [5] Rates of violent deaths by firearm range from as low as 0.03 and 0.04 per 100,000 population in Singapore and Japan, to 59 and 67 per 100,000 in Honduras and Venezuela. [6] The highest rates of violent deaths by firearm in the world occur in low-income South and Central American countries such as Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil and Jamaica. [6]
The United States has the 11th highest rate of gun violence in the world and a gun homicide rate which is 25 times higher than the average respective rates of other high income nations. [7] [8] The United States has a total rate of firearms death which is many times higher than that of similarly developed nations with strict gun control laws, such as Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. [8] Nearly all studies have found a positive correlation between gun ownership and gun-related homicide and suicide rates. [9] [10] : 29 [11]
According to the United Nations, small arms account for roughly half of the weapons used to kill people, [12] and more people die each year from gun-related violence than did in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. [13] The global death toll from use of guns may be as high as 1,000 dead each day. [13]
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A number of ideas have been proposed on how to lessen the incidence of gun-related violence.
Some propose keeping a gun at home to keep one safer. Studies show that guns in the home is associated with an increased risk of violent death in the home. [15] According to the Huffington Post, FBI data shows that gun-related violence is linked to gun ownership and is not a function or byproduct of crime. They stated that the FBI data indicates that less than 10% of gun fatalities would be eliminated if they stopped of all violent crime, and therefore gun violence is caused by too many guns. [16] Mother Jones reports that "[a] Philadelphia study found that the odds of an assault victim being shot were 4.5 times greater if he carried a gun" and that "[h]is odds of being killed were 4.2 times greater" when armed. [17]
Others propose arming civilians to counter mass shootings. FBI research shows that between 2000 and 2013, "In 5 incidents (3.1%), the shooting ended after armed individuals who were not law enforcement personnel exchanged gunfire with the shooters." [18] Another proposal is to expand self defense laws for cases where a person is being aggressed upon, although "those policies have been linked to a 7 to 10% increase in homicides" (that is, shootings where self-defense cannot be claimed). [17] While the CDC has been studying on possible methods of preventing gun violence, they have not come to many conclusions on good gun violence prevention. [19]
Psychiatry is another method seen to help with gun control, It can be used to see the possibility that someone may commit these violent acts. However, it is not a foolproof prevention method that stops gun violence. It is a method that can prevent huge danger warnings from getting access to firearms, but those who have mental illnesses that are not as dangerous, but the people are dangerous, can slip by undetected. [20]
This section needs to be updated.(March 2014) |
There is a strong relationship between guns in the home, as well as access to guns more generally, and suicide risk, the evidence for which is strongest in the United States. [24] [25] In 2017, almost half of the nation's 47,173 suicides involved a firearm. [26] A 1992 case-control study conducted in Tennessee and Washington found that individuals in a firearm owning home are close to five times more likely to commit suicide than those individuals who do not own firearms. [27] A 2002 study found that access to guns in the home was associated with an increased risk of suicide among middle-aged and older adults, even after controlling for psychiatric illness. [28] As of 2008, there were 12 case-control studies that had been conducted in the U.S., all of which had found that guns in the home were associated with an increased risk of suicide. [29] However, a 1996 New Zealand study found no significant relationship between household guns and suicide. [30] Assessing data from 14 developed countries where gun ownership levels were known, the Harvard Injury Control Research Center found statistically significant correlations between those levels and suicide rates. However, the parallels were lost when data from additional nations was included. [31] : 30 A 2006 study found a significant effect of changes in gun ownership rates on gun suicide rates in multiple Western countries. [32] During the 1980s and 1990s, the rate of adolescent suicides with guns caught up with adult rates, and the 75-and-older rate rose above all others. [10] : 20–21 [33] A 2002 study found that 90% of suicide attempts with firearms were successful. [34]
The use of firearms in suicides ranges from less than 10 percent in Australia [35] to 50 percent in the United States, where it is the most common method [36] and where suicides outnumber homicides two to one. [37] Those who purchased a firearm were found to be high risk for suicide within a week of the purchase. [38] The United States has both the highest number of Suicides and Gun ownerships for a developed country and firearms are the most popular method to commit suicide. In the United States when Gun ownerships rise so, too, does suicide by firearm. Suicide can be an impulsive act, 40% of those who survived a suicide attempt said that they only considered suicide up to five minutes before attempting the act. This impulsivity can lead to the use of a firearm as it is seen as a quick and lethal method. [39]
According to U.S. criminologist Gary Kleck, studies that try to link gun ownership to victimology often fail to account for the presence of guns owned by other people. [40] Research by economists John Lott of the U.S. and John Whitley of Australia indicates that safe-storage laws do not appear to affect juvenile accidental gun-related deaths or suicides. [41] In contrast, a 2004 study led by Daniel Webster found that such laws were associated with slight reductions in suicide rates among children. The same study criticized Lott and Whitley's study on the subject for inappropriately using a Tobit model. [42] A committee of the U.S. National Research Council said ecological studies on violence and firearms ownership provide contradictory evidence. The committee wrote: "[Existing] research studies and data include a wealth of descriptive information on homicide, suicide, and firearms, but, because of the limitations of existing data and methods, do not credibly demonstrate a causal relationship between the ownership of firearms and the causes or prevention of criminal violence or suicide." [43]
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) defines intentional homicide as "acts in which the perpetrator intended to cause death or serious injury by his or her actions." This excludes deaths: related to conflicts (war); caused by recklessness or negligence; or justifiable, such as in self-defense or by law enforcement in the line of duty. [5] A 2009 report by the Geneva Declaration using UNODC data showed that worldwide firearms were used in an average of 60 percent of all homicides. [45] : 67 In the U.S. in 2011, 67 percent of homicide victims were killed by a firearm: 66 percent of single-victim homicides and 79 percent of multiple-victim homicides. [46] In 2009, the United States' homicide rate was reported to be 5.0 per 100,000. [47] A 2016 Harvard study claims that in 2010 the homicide rate was about 7 times higher than that of other high-income countries, and that the US gun homicide rate was 25.2 times higher. [48] Another Harvard study found that higher gun availability was strongly correlated with higher homicide rates across 26 high-income countries. [49] Access to guns is associated with an increased risk of being the victim of homicide. [25] Access to firearms is not the sole contributor to increased homicide rates, however, as one study by the Southern Criminal Justice Association in 2011 found. Equally important seem to be the particular societal conditions in a given area, socio-culturally. These conditions include, but are not limited to societal age structure, economic inequality, cultural symbolism associated with firearms and the cultural value of individual life. [50] A 2001 study examining gun ownership amongst 21 high-income countries found that gun ownership by country was only correlated with female firearm homicide rates, but not male firearm, firearm homicides including both genders, and overall homicide rates. [51]
This section needs to be updated.(March 2014) |
Some gun control advocates say that the strongest evidence linking the availability of guns to death and injury is found in domestic violence studies, often referring to those by public health policy analyst Arthur Kellermann. In response to suggestions by some that homeowners would be wise to acquire firearms for protection from home invasions, Kellermann investigated in-home homicides in three cities over five years. He found that the risk of a homicide was in fact slightly higher in homes where a handgun was present. The data showed that the risk of a crime of passion or other domestic dispute ending in a fatal injury was higher when a gun was readily available (essentially loaded and unlocked) compared to when no gun was readily available. Kellerman said this increase in mortality overshadowed any protection a gun might have deterring or defending against burglaries or invasions. He also concluded that further research of domestic violence causes and prevention are needed. [52]
Critics of Kellermann's study say that it is more directly a study of domestic violence than of gun ownership. Gary Kleck and others dispute the work. [53] [54] Kleck says that few of the homicides that Kellermann studied were committed with guns belonging to the victim or members of their household, and that it was implausible that victim household gun ownership contributed to their homicide. Instead, according to Kleck, the association that Kellermann found between gun ownership and victimization reflected that people who live in more dangerous circumstances are more likely to be murdered, but also were more likely to have acquired guns for self-protection. [55]
In studies of nonfatal gun use, it was found that guns can contribute to coercive control, which can then escalate into chronic and more severe violence. [56] Guns can have a negative impact on victims even without being discharged. [56] Threats of gun use or showing a weapon can create damaging and long-lasting fear and emotional stress in victims because they are aware of the danger of having an abuser who has access to a gun. [56]
This section needs to be updated.(March 2014) |
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime defines robbery as the theft of property by force or threat of force. Assault is defined as a physical attack against the body of another person resulting in serious bodily injury. In the case of gun-related violence, the definitions become more specific and include only robbery and assault committed with the use of a firearm. [57] Firearms are used in this threatening capacity four to six times more than firearms used as a means of protection in fighting crime. [58] [59] Hemenway's figures are disputed by other academics, who assert there are many more defensive uses of firearms than criminal uses.[ citation needed ]
In terms of occurrence, developed countries have similar rates of assaults and robberies with firearms, whereas the rates of homicides by firearms vary greatly by country. [10] [60]
From 1979 to 1997, almost 30,000 people in the United States alone died from accidental firearm injuries. A disproportionately high number of these deaths occurred in parts of the United States where firearms are more prevalent. [61] Following the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, accidental firearm deaths increased by about five hundred percent until April 2013. [62]
Gun violence has many different psychological and external causes that can be attributed to it.
While only about 1 percent of court cases relating to gun violence end in "not guilty by insanity", about 28 percent of people who commit gun violence are found to have some form of mental illness. [64] From Centers of Disease Control and Prevention's report regarding national mental health survey, about 1 in 5 Americans experience mental illness in a given year, and 1 in 25 Americans lives under severe mental health problem, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression. [65] However, mental illness is not the major cause of gun violence. According to statistics, the United States, with similar rate of mental illness to other high-income countries, has relatively higher rate of firearm homicide, which is approximately 25 times higher; firearm suicide is also 10 times higher than other high-income countries. [66] Even though there are about 14 million people with serious mental illness in the United States, they only take up a small portion of the perpetrator of mass shootings in the nation. Moreover, by eliminating mental illness, the nation's rate of violence would be decreased only by 3%. [67]
External causes that create gun violence are much more prevalent than the mental illnesses, as many of them create "heat of the moment" killings, which make up almost 85% of all gun violence acts. These causes, which tend to be created by other people, such as friends, relatives, acquaintances, and enemies, are much more likely to occur than a random spur of the moment killing. Loner gunmen also have some external motivations as well, as a lack of a social circle may have left them resentful and angry and likely to become dangerous to those around them. [20]
Violence committed with guns leads to significant public health, psychological, and economic costs.
The economic cost of gun-related violence in the United States is $229 billion a year, [70] [ qualify evidence ] meaning a single murder has average direct costs of almost $450,000, from the police and ambulance at the scene, to the hospital, courts, and prison for the murderer. [70] A 2014 study found that from 2006 to 2010, gun-related injuries in the United States cost $88 billion. [71]
Assault by firearm resulted in 180,000 deaths worldwide in 2013, up from 128,000 deaths worldwide in 1990. [4] There were 47,000 unintentional firearm deaths worldwide in 2013. [4]
Emergency medical care is a major contributor to the monetary costs of such violence. It was determined in a study that for every firearm death in the United States for the year beginning 1 June 1992, an average of three firearm-related injuries were treated in hospital emergency departments. [72]
Children exposed to gun-related violence, whether they are victims, perpetrators, or witnesses, can experience negative psychological effects over the short and long terms. Psychological trauma also is common among children who are exposed to high levels of violence in their communities or through the media. [73] Psychologist James Garbarino, who studies children in the U.S. and internationally, found that individuals who experience violence are prone to mental and other health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and sleep deprivation. These problems increase for those who experience violence as children. [74] It is conceivable that over a longer period, physical and emotional sequelae of mass shootings may lead to an array of symptoms and disability among affected individuals and communities who will likely experience lifelong consequences by carrying long-term memories of devastation, violence, injuries, and deaths. [75]
The Port Arthur massacre of 1996 horrified the Australian public. The gunman opened fire on shop owners and tourists, killing 35 people and wounding 23. This massacre sparked new efforts to enforce Australia's laws against guns. The Prime Minister at that time, John Howard, proposed a gun law that prevented the public from having all semi-automatic rifles, all semi-automatic and pump-action shotguns, in addition to a tightly restrictive system of licensing and ownership controls.
The government also bought back guns from people. In 1996–2003 it was estimated they bought back and destroyed nearly 1 million firearms. By the end of 1996, whilst Australia was still reeling from the Port Arthur massacre, the gun law was fully in place. Since then, the number of deaths related to gun-related violence dwindled almost every year. In 1979, 685 people [77] died due to gun violence, and in 1996 it was 516. The numbers continue to drop; however, they were declining also before the gun law was in place. [78]
On the Australia's most mediated gun violence-related incident since Port Arthur, was the 2014 Sydney Hostage Crisis. On 15–16 December 2014, a lone gunman, Man Haron Monis, held hostage 17 customers and employees of a Lindt chocolate café. The perpetrator was on bail at the time, and had previously been convicted of a range of offences. [79] [80]
The following year in August, the New South Wales Government tightened the laws of bail and illegal firearms, creating a new offence for the possession of a stolen firearm, with a maximum of 14 years imprisonment. [81]
Gun violence in Sweden (Swedish: skjutningar or gängskjutningar) increased steeply among males aged 15 to 29 in the two decades prior to 2018, in addition to a rising trend in gun violence there was also a high rate of gun violence in Sweden compared to other countries in Western Europe. [82]
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Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
By 2021, gun violence by organized crime had increased tenfold since the early 1990s. [86]
According to a report published by academic researchers in 2017, shooting incidents with fatal outcomes are about 4 to 5 times as common in Sweden compared to neighbouring countries such as Germany and Norway when taking population size into account. The city with the highest prevalence of shootings was Malmö. The grave violence in the studied period also changed character, from criminal motorcycle gangs to city suburbs. [87] [88] Sweden also stands out in having a low resolution rate (25%) for gun homicides compared to Germany and Finland at 90%. [88]
In January 2018, police statistics reported an increase in gun homicides from 8 in 2006 to 43 in 2017. [89] Analysis of 2011–2017 gang warfare showed that there were 1500 incidents involving firearms, 131 people had been killed and 520 injured. [90]
In February 2018, criminologist Jerzy Sarnecki stated in an interview with magazine Forskning & Framsteg that the increasing levels of gun crime in Sweden had taken him, Swedish criminologists in general and police in Sweden by surprise. He characterised the recent developments as "very serious". [91]
A 2018 systematic review of 25 studies on firearm violence in Sweden by criminologist and physician Ardavan Khoshnood, concluded "that even though knives/sharp weapons continue to be the most common MO in a violent crime in Sweden, firearm-related violence is significantly increasing in the country and foremost when discussing gang-related crimes. Moreover, firearm-related homicides and attempted homicides are increasing in the country. The studies also show that a firearm is much more lethal than a knife/sharp weapon... It is principally the three largest cities of Sweden which are affected by the many shootings in recent years." [92]
According to researcher Amir Rostami at Stockholm University, police statistics for January–November 2018 showed that the number of shootings was at a continued high rate at 274, where up until the end of November 42 people had been shot and killed and 129 wounded compared to 43 in 2017.
In 2020 there were 366 incidents of shootings in Sweden where 47 people were killed and 117 were wounded, which represented a 10% increase on the previous year. About half the shooting resulting in killings took place in so-called vulnerable areas and represented an increase on the preceding year. [93] [94]
In 2021, Sweden was found to have the 2nd highest gun homicide rate (after Croatia) out of 22 European countries surveyed. Most other countries surveyed had instead experienced a decline in gun homicides. [95] [96]
According to researcher Amir Rostami in 2021, those responsible for the gun violence are predominantly young men and often second generation immigrants. [97]
By 2023 gun violence in Sweden had risen to 2.5 times the European average. Most of the violence continued to be attributable to an influx of guns, drug dealing, and marginalized immigrant communities. [98]
According to police in 2018, at least nine people who were innocent bystanders had been killed in cross-fire incidents in the last few years and the risk to the public was therefore rising. [99]
In 2017, Minister for Justice Morgan Johansson stated in an interview that the risk to "innocent people" was small. [100]
In the 2011–2020 period 46 bystanders had been killed or wounded in 36 shooting incidents. Of these, 8 were under the age of 15. According to researcher Joakim Sturup, a contributing factor could be the increased use of automatic firearms. [93]
Gun violence in the United States results in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries annually. [106] In 2013, there were 73,505 nonfatal firearm injuries (23.2 injuries per 100,000 U.S. citizens), [107] [108] and 33,636 deaths due to "injury by firearms" (10.6 deaths per 100,000 U.S. citizens). [109] These deaths consisted of 11,208 homicides, [110] 21,175 suicides, [109] 505 deaths due to accidental or negligent discharge of a firearm, and 281 deaths due to firearms use with "undetermined intent". [109] Of the 2,596,993 total deaths in the US in 2013, 1.3% were related to firearms. [106] [111] The ownership and control of guns are among the most widely debated issues in the country.
In 2010, 67% of all homicides in the U.S. were committed using a firearm. [112] In 2012, there were 8,855 total firearm-related homicides in the US, with 6,371 of those attributed to handguns. [113] In 2012, 64% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides. [114] In 2010, there were 19,392 firearm-related suicides, and 11,078 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. [115] In 2010, 358 murders were reported involving a rifle while 6,009 were reported involving a handgun; another 1,939 were reported with an unspecified type of firearm. [116]
Firearms were used to kill 13,286 people in the U.S. in 2015, excluding suicide. [117] Approximately 1.4 million people have been killed using firearms in the U.S. between 1968 and 2011, equivalent to a top 10th largest U.S. city in 2016, falling between the populations of San Antonio and Dallas, Texas. [117]
Compared to 22 other high-income nations, the U.S. gun-related murder rate is 25 times higher. [118] Although it has half the population of the other 22 nations combined, the U.S. had 82 percent of all gun deaths, 90 percent of all women killed with guns, 91 percent of children under 14 and 92 percent of young people between ages 15 and 24 killed with guns. [118] In 2010, gun violence cost U.S. taxpayers approximately $516 million in direct hospital costs. [119]
Gun violence is most common in poor urban areas and frequently associated with gang violence, often involving male juveniles or young adult males. [120] [121] Although mass shootings have been covered extensively in the media, mass shootings in the US account for a small fraction of gun-related deaths [122] and the frequency of these events steadily declined between 1994 and 2007, rising between 2007 and 2013. [123] [124]
Legislation at the federal, state, and local levels has attempted to address gun violence through a variety of methods, including restricting firearms purchases by youths and other "at-risk" populations, setting waiting periods for firearm purchases, establishing gun buyback programs, law enforcement and policing strategies, stiff sentencing of gun law violators, education programs for parents and children, and community-outreach programs. Despite widespread concern about the impacts of gun violence on public health, Congress has prohibited the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) from conducting research that advocates in favor of gun control. [125] The CDC has interpreted this ban to extend to all research on gun violence prevention, and so has not funded any research on this subject since 1996. [126] However the 'Dickey' amendment only restricts the CDC advocating for gun control with government funds. It does not restrict research into gun violence and the causal links between the gun and the violence, however funding has not yet been yet been granted for that purpose, i.e. epidemiology, the CDC requires congressional approval to proceed. [127]
Until the year of 2020, firearms have become the most leading cause of death of children in the U.S. From statistics, there are 4368 children and adolescents up to age 19 have died from gun violence in the year of 2020. On the everyday average, 12 children die from gun violence, and 100 people killed by guns in the United States. [128] Two-thirds of the death from gun violence is homicide. [129] [130] Moreover, there are more Black children that have been killed in mass shooting than white children, which is four times more. [130]
An article released from The Brink, Pioneering Research from Boston University, addresses the correlation between increased availability for gun safety, and its inverse relationship to gun violence, leading to gun violence's decrease in areas with greater gun safety. The article states: "Legislation at the federal, state, and local levels has attempted to address gun violence through a variety of methods, including restricting firearms purchases by youths and other 'at-risk' populations." [132] Youth who have easy access to firearms are at a high risk to engage in aggressive behaviors as well as to become perpetrators of violence themselves. [133] Additionally, children who experience bullying are more likely to access guns. In a study, youth who reported mental distress were discovered to have a 68% higher chance of hurting others on school ground compared to youth who did not experience mental distress [133]
On December 14, 2012, Adam Lanza shot and killed his mother at her home and then drove to Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he killed 20 children and six adult staff. Lanza committed suicide as police arrived at the school. Lanza had severe mental health issues which were not adequately treated. [134] The event reignited a debate regarding access to firearms by people with mental illness and gun laws in the United States.[ citation needed ] It also created a new perspective about how violence in the entertainment industry affects the development of youth. The shooter was known to play violent video games, such as "Call of Duty". [135] Some say that the violent video games "desensitized" him to killing and death [135]
On May 24, 2022, Salvador Rolando Ramos shot (but failed to kill) his grandmother and then entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, through a door that was not properly closed. After entering the school, Salvador Rolando Ramos fired over 100 rounds, which resulted in the death of 19 students and 2 teachers. [136] A 11-year-old girl survived by playing dead, when she smeared herself with others' blood. Moreover, before Salvador Rolando Ramos killed one of the teacher, "Good night," he said indifferently. [137] Two days after the mass shooting, Joe, the husband of a teacher named Garcia killed during the shooting, had died due to heart attack. [138] This mass shooting had again drew government's and society's attention toward gun violence and control. There are debates raised after the mass shooting regarding gun control, which the public urged the government to release more gun control laws and reinforce the background checks. [128]
In 2009, more than 1,100 were killed. [139]
In 2012, a Turkish parliament document stated that 85% of the guns in the country were unregistered. [139]
In 2013, more than 1,800 were killed. [139]
In 2015, more than 1,900 people were killed and 1,200 people were injured from guns. [139]
In 2017, more than 2,100 people were killed and 3,500 people were injured. [140]
In 2018, more than 2,200 people were killed and more than 3,700 were injured. The five places with the most incidents were Istanbul, Ankara, Samsun, Adana and Sakarya. [141]
In 2020, more than 2,000 people were killed and more than 3,600 were injured, although there were curfews in the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The five cities with the most incidents were Istanbul, Samsun, Adana, İzmir and Bursa. [142] The chairman of the Umut Foundation NGO said that there were 18 million unregistered guns which is 89% of the guns in the country. [143]
In 2021, more than 2,140 people were killed and 3,896 were severely wounded in gun violence incidents in the country. [144]
Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians.
More Guns, Less Crime is a book by John R. Lott Jr. that says violent crime rates go down when states pass "shall issue" concealed carry laws. He presents the results of his statistical analysis of crime data for every county in the United States during 29 years from 1977 to 2005. Each edition of the book was refereed by the University of Chicago Press. As of 2019, the book is no longer published by the University of Chicago Press. The book examines city, county and state level data from the entire United States and measures the impact of 13 different types of gun control laws on crime rates. The book expands on an earlier study published in 1997 by Lott and his co-author David Mustard in The Journal of Legal Studies and by Lott and his co-author John Whitley in The Journal of Law and Economics, October 2001.
The right to keep and bear arms is a legal right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, as well as hunting and sporting activities. Countries that guarantee a right to keep and bear arms include Albania, Czech Republic, Guatemala, Ukraine, Mexico, the United States, Yemen, and Switzerland.
Arthur L. Kellermann is an American physician and epidemiologist. Until his resignation in November 2022, he served as a professor of emergency medicine at the VCU School of Medicine, senior vice president of health sciences for Virginia Commonwealth University, and CEO of the VCU Health System. He was formerly professor and dean of the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Kellerman served as director of the RAND Institute of Health and founded the department of emergency medicine at Emory University and the Center for Injury Control at Rollins School of Public Health. His writings include 200 publications on various aspects of emergency cardiac care, health services research, injury prevention and the role of emergency departments in providing health care to the poor. Kellermann is known for his research on the epidemiology of firearm-related injuries and deaths, which he interpreted not as random, unavoidable acts but as preventable public-health priorities. Kellermann and his research have been strongly disputed by gun rights organizations, in particular by the National Rifle Association of America, although Kellermann's findings have been supported by a large body of peer-reviewed research finding that increasing gun ownership is associated with increased rates of homicide and violence.
Gary Kleck is a criminologist and the David J. Bordua Professor Emeritus of Criminology at Florida State University.
Gun laws in Australia are predominantly within the jurisdiction of Australian states and territories, with the importation of guns regulated by the federal government. In the last two decades of the 20th century, following several high-profile killing sprees, the federal government coordinated more restrictive firearms legislation with all state governments.
Gun politics in the United States is characterized by two primary opposing ideologies regarding private firearm ownership.
A suicide method is any means by which a person may choose to end their life. Suicide attempts do not always result in death, and a non-fatal suicide attempt can leave the person with serious physical injuries, long-term health problems, or brain damage.
Gun violence is a term of political, economic and sociological interest referring to the tens of thousands of annual firearms-related deaths and injuries occurring in the United States.
This is a list of US states by gun deaths and rates of violence. In 2021, there were 26,000 gun suicides and 21,000 gun homicides, together making up a sixth of deaths from external causes. Gun deaths make up about half of all suicides, but over 80% of homicides.
In 2018, the Small Arms Survey reported that there are over one billion small arms distributed globally, of which 857 million are in civilian hands. The survey stated that USA civilians account for an estimated 393 million of the worldwide total of civilian held firearms, or about 120.5 firearms for every 100 American residents.
The State of Texas is considered to have some of the most relaxed gun laws in the United States. Public concerns over gun control in Texas have increased in recent years as Mexican drug cartels continue to commit violent crimes closer to Texas' stretch of the Mexico–United States border. They have also increased due to the number of incidents, including misuse of firearms stolen from other sources.
Defensive gun use (DGU) is the use or presentation of a firearm for self-defense, defense of others or, in some cases, protecting property. The frequency of incidents involving DGU and their effectiveness in providing safety and reducing crime are controversial issues in gun politics and criminology, chiefly in the United States. Different authors and studies employ different criteria for what constitutes a defensive gun use which leads to controversy in comparing statistical results. Perceptions of defensive gun use are recurring themes in discussions over gun rights, gun control, armed police, open and concealed carry of firearms.
A universal background check for guns is a policy that requires a background check for all gun sales or transfers, regardless of where they occur or who is involved. This includes sales at gun shows, private sales between individuals, and sales made online. The idea is to close loopholes in existing laws that currently allow some gun purchases to occur without background checks.
The National Firearms Agreement (NFA), also sometimes called the National Agreement on Firearms, the National Firearms Agreement and Buyback Program, or the Nationwide Agreement on Firearms, was an agreement concerning firearm control made by Australasian Police Ministers' Council (APMC) in 1996, in response to the Port Arthur massacre that killed 35 people. Four days after the killings, Australian Prime Minister John Howard told Parliament “We need to achieve a total prohibition on the ownership, possession, sale and importation of all automatic and semi-automatic weapons. That will be the essence of the proposal that will be put by the Commonwealth government at the meeting on Friday...". The APMC would agree to and form the NFA 12 days after the massacre on the 10th of May 1996.
A child access prevention law makes it illegal for an adult to keep a gun in a place and manner so that a child can easily access and fire it. Proponents of these laws, such as the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in the United States, argue that they are effective at reducing accidental gun deaths among children, since they reduce accessibility and thereby risk. The National Rifle Association of America has lobbied against such laws, arguing that they are ineffective and infringe on the rights of gun owners to protect their homes.
Mass shootings are incidents involving multiple victims of firearm related violence. Definitions vary, with no single, broadly accepted definition. One definition is an act of public firearm violence—excluding gang killings, domestic violence, or terrorist acts sponsored by an organization—in which a shooter kills at least four victims.
In the United States, use of deadly force by police has been a high-profile and contentious issue. In 2022, 1,096 people were killed by police shootings according to The Washington Post, while according to the "Mapping Police Violence" (MPV) project, 1,176 people were killed by police in total. MPV documented 1,213 killings by police for 2023.
Table 1
One study found a statistically significant relationship between gun ownership levels and suicide rate across 14 developed nations (e.g. where survey data on gun ownership levels were available), but the association lost its statistical significance when additional countries were included.
Studies that attempt to link the gun ownership of individuals to their experiences as victims (e.g., Kellermann, et al. 1993) do not effectively determine how an individual's risk of victimization is affected by gun ownership by other people, especially those not living in the gun owner's own household.
It is frequently assumed that safe-storage laws reduce accidental gun deaths and total suicides. We find no support that safe-storage laws reduce either juvenile accidental gun deaths or suicides.
CNN's attribution: Developed countries are defined based on the UN classification, which includes 36 countries. Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (Global Burden of Disease 2019), Small Arms Survey (Civilian Firearm Holdings 2017)
The number of deaths per 100,000 total population. Source: wonder.cdc.gov● Household firearm ownership data from Schell, Terry L.; Peterson, Samuel; Vegetabile, Brian G.; Scherling, Adam; Smart, Rosanna; Morral, Andrew R. (April 22, 2020). "State-Level Estimates of Household Firearm Ownership". rand.org. RAND Corporation. p. 21. Archived from the original on 2023-05-05. Fig. 2. PDF file (download link)
Data source: Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center
Source: Jason R. Silva, William Paterson University
Library resources in your library about gun violence