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Guns cause over 40,000 deaths to Americans every year and pose threats to children in schools every day. 

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Guns cause over 40,000 deaths to Americans every year and pose threats to children in schools every day. 

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This topic interests me because it's a constant issue and threat to me and my peers every day at school. We've had shooter drills since we started school in kindergarten and have had multiple threats during our highschool experience. It's something we see on the news everyday, and the cause of tragedies constantly across the country.

Gun control and gun deaths are a huge topic of debate in our country and government and a very important issue to discuss.

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This source talks about the amount of injuries and deaths that are caused by guns every day in America.
The US has the highest gun ownership and firearm death rate while having similar percentages of mental health issues as other countries, proving many people wrong that this is not just a mental health issue. Although around 60% of gun deaths are suicide, access to firearms is what is threatening the general public. Over the last decade, the gun death rate has increased by 17% and the homicide rate has spiked 31% from 2014-2016.

Gun owner culture is so strong in the US that many people would rather have guns easily accessible to the public rather than have gun control enforced, knowing that it continues to harm the youth because of their love for guns/hunting.
67% of American gun owners bought them to protect their homes and believe that this is good enough reasoning to own firearms, but this isn't true. Guns being easily accessible in the home just makes everybody who lives there, unsafe. Family members who live in the home of a gun owner are more likely to be injured by the gun then the risk of an intruder or burglary even happening.

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The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence

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Background

Gun violence is a public health epidemic in the United States. Every year nearly 40,000 Americans are killed by guns, including more than 23,000 who die by firearm suicide, 14,000 who die by firearm homicide, more than 500 who die by legal intervention,12 nearly 500 who die by unintentional firearm injuries, and more than 300 who die by undetermined intent.12 This equates to more than 100 gun deaths every single day. In addition, every day nearly 200 Americans visit the emergency department for nonfatal firearm injuries.13

In 2019, the most recent year of data available, there were 39,707 gun deaths - 109 every single day.14 Three in every five gun deaths are suicides and more than one-third are homicides, while the remainder are unintentional, of unknown intent, or law enforcement intervention.

Among high-income countries, the United States is an outlier in terms of gun violence. It has been well-documented that firearm ownership rates? are associated with increased firearm-related death rates. The U.S. has the highest firearm ownership and highest firearm death rates of 27 high-income countries.15 The firearm homicide rate in the U.S. is nearly 25 times higher than other high-income countries and the firearm suicide rate is nearly 10 times that of other high-income countries.16

It is a common misconception that individuals living with mental illness are responsible for gun violence. When compared to other countries, the United States has similar rates of mental illness, yet we have much higher rates of gun violence.17, 18 To be clear, mental illness does not cause gun violence - the problem is access to firearms.

While gun death data are the most reliable type of gun violence data currently available, it is important to recognize that gun deaths are only the tip of the iceberg of the gun violence epidemic. In addition to gun deaths, many more people are shot and survive their injuries, are shot at but not hit, or witness gun violence. Many experience gun violence in other ways, for example by living in impacted communities, losing loved ones to gun violence, or being threatened with a gun.

The CDC Plays a Vital Role in Providing Public Health Data to Researchers

Researchers need robust and reliable data to study and develop solutions to address the epidemic of gun violence in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the federal agency responsible for protecting the health of Americans by ensuring that data is properly collected to develop solutions to our nation's public health crises, including gun violence. The CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) plays an instrumental role for gun violence prevention advocates and researchers. The NVDRS uses death certificates, police reports, and hospital records to report information about the victim, the cause of death, and the circumstances surrounding their death.19 The CDC makes this data publicly available and easily accessible through their Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS).
To learn more, visit our page on nonfatal firearm injuries. The following data presented on this page focuses on the impact to those who were killed by gun violence.

Gun Ownership

Many Americans celebrate guns in our culture and disregard the inherent public safety issues that a gun-friendly culture creates. U.S. firearm ownership rates exceed those of other high-income countries20 and Americans own 46% of the world's civilian-owned firearms.21 Thirty percent of Americans report owning a gun,22 with estimates of the total number of privately-owned guns in the U.S. ranging from 265 million to nearly 400 million.23, 24, 25 The majority of gun owners (66%) report owning multiple guns,26 and it is estimated that half of all guns are in the hands of just 3% of the U.S. population.27

Gun Ownership by State

Gun ownership varies significantly by state. For example, one study found that gun ownership varies from 61.7% in Alaska to 5.2% in Delaware.28 Higher levels of gun ownership are correlated with higher rates of suicide,29, 30, 31, 32, 33 homicide,34, 35, 36, 37 unintentional firearm deaths,38, 39 law enforcement killings,40 and violent crime.41

Reasons for Gun Ownership - "Protection"

More than 6 in 10 Americans believe that a gun in the home makes the family safer - a figure that has nearly doubled since 2000.42 This increase in perceived safety is reflected in shifting reasons for gun ownership. In a 2017 Pew Research survey, two-thirds (67%) of gun owners cited protection as a major reason for gun ownership.43 This represents a notable increase from the mid-1990s, when the majority of American gun owners cited recreation as their primary reason for gun ownership and fewer than half owned guns primarily for protection.44

However, the evidence is clear: guns don't make you safer. Contrary to the gun lobby's talking points, overwhelming research shows that gun ownership and easy access to guns inherently puts individuals and their families at higher risk of death and injury.22, 23 With a recent study estimating that there are more guns than people in the United States45 and with a rate of gun violence continually increasing, it is imperative to know the facts about guns and gun violence.

"We must remember that stopping gun violence isn't only about preventing high-profile mass shootings. It is about stopping gun violence in all its forms. We must acknowledge that gun violence comes in many different forms - from gun suicide to police brutality to domestic violence to unintentional shootings to daily gun violence in neighborhoods across the country."

- Bryan Barks, Director of Strategic Communications

How does gun ownership and access to firearms affect gun deaths?

Every year, nearly 40,000 Americans are killed by guns, including:46

More than 23,000 who die by firearm suicide

14,000 who die by firearm homicide

More than 500 who die by legal intervention?

Nearly 500 who die by unintentional firearm injuries

More than 300 who die by undetermined intent

This equates to more than 100 gun deaths every single day.

Suicide

More than 60% of all gun deaths are suicides.58 Evidence consistently shows that access to firearms increases the risk of suicide.48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54 Access to a gun in the home increases the odds of suicide more than three-fold.55 Firearms are so dangerous when someone is at risk for suicide because they are the most lethal suicide attempt method.

Though research shows that few individuals substitute means for suicide if their preferred method is not available, if firearms are not available, the person at risk for suicide is much more likely to survive even if they attempt using another method.56 Delaying a suicide attempt can also allow suicidal crises to pass and lead to fewer suicides. Ninety percent of individuals who attempt suicide do not go on to die by suicide.57 The use of a firearm in a suicide attempt often means there is no second chance.
To learn more, visit PreventFirearmSuicide.com or visit our page on firearm suicide.

Homicide

Over 35% of all gun deaths are homicides.58 Access to firearms - such as the presence of a gun in the home - is correlated with an increased risk for homicide victimization.58, 59 States with high rates of gun ownership consistently have higher firearm homicide rates.60, 61, 62 Studies show that access to firearms doubles the risk of homicide.63 Nearly 75% of all U.S. homicides are by firearm.64 Firearm homicide is a complex issue that includes different types of gun violence - domestic violence, interpersonal community violence, and mass shootings - and requires an array of different policies, programs, and practices if we want to see meaningful change.

Gun ownership also has implications for the number of mass shootings in a state. A 2019 study found that the permissiveness of state gun laws and an increase in a state's gun ownership were associated with higher rates of mass shootings. Specifically, every 10 unit increase in the permissiveness of a state's gun laws is associated with a 9% higher rate of mass shootings. For every 10% increase in gun ownership, states have a 35.1% higher rate of mass shootings.65 The authors wrote, "This means that a state like California, which has approximately two mass shootings per year, will have an extra mass shooting for every 10 unit increase in permissiveness over five years. It will also have three to five more mass shootings per five years for every 10 unit increase in gun ownership."66
To learn more, visit our pages on firearm homicide or mass shootings.

Unintentional Shootings

About 1% of all gun deaths are unintentional.67 "Unintentional" is the description used for a death that was not caused purposely. In gun violence, examples include fatal injuries that occur when a weapon misfires or is mishandled by a child and results in the victim being shot (in contrast with homicide and suicide, both of which involve an intent to pull the trigger and cause harm). Easy access to firearms, particularly unsecured firearms and the presence of firearms in risky situations, increases risk of unintentional injury and death by firearm. Mitigating access with safer storage practices and through evidence-based policy prevents unintentional gun violence.
To learn more, visit our page on unintentional shootings.

Legal Intervention / Police-Involved Shootings

"Legal intervention" is the description used by the CDC for injuries inflicted by the police or other law enforcement agents, including military on duty, in the course of arresting or attempting to arrest lawbreakers, suppressing disturbances, maintaining order, and other legal actions. In gun violence, these are also known as police-involved shootings. According to the CDC, more than 500 Americans die by legal intervention every year.

However, the government's data (including the CDC data) provide a substantial under-count of police-involved injuries and deaths. To address this gap, a number of media sources have tracked police-involved shootings in recent years, most notably the Washington Post's Fatal Force database. This database found that 1,000 Americans are shot and killed by police every year - more than double the number of police-involved fatal shootings than are reported in FBI and CDC databases.68 Black Americans are disproportionately impacted by police-involved shootings and are killed at more than twice the rate as White Americans.69

Ultimately, better data on police-involved injuries and deaths are sorely needed. Compulsory and comprehensive data collection at the local level, reporting to the federal government, and transparency in public dissemination of data will be critical for understanding this unique kind of gun violence and developing evidence-based solutions to minimize police-involved shootings.

An In-Depth Look at Gun Violence in the United States

Gun Violence in America - A Public Health Crisis Decades in the Making

A report from the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence and Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, A Public Health Crisis Decades in the Making: A Review of 2019 CDC Gun Mortality Data, draws on the most recent gun death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to illustrate the fatal toll of the gun violence epidemic in the U.S. The report outlines gun death data from 2019, including demographic details, state-by-state breakdowns, and reviews trends over the last two decades.

Gun Death Trends Over Time

39,707 Americans died by gun violence in 2019, a small decrease of 33 gun deaths from 2018.70

An average of 109 people died of gun violence each day in 2019, bringing the most recent five-year average (2015-2019) to 106 gun deaths per day.

23,941 Americans died by firearm suicide in 2019, 66 people every day.

14,414 Americans died by firearm homicide in 2019, more than 39 people every day.

Gun Deaths in the United States,2010-2019

Gun Death Rate Trends Over Time

The overall gun death rate increased 17% over the last decade - the gun suicide rate increased 12.5% and the gun homicide rate increased nearly 26%.71

While the firearm suicide rate decreased slightly from 2018 to 2019, the rate has trended upward over the last decade.

The firearm homicide rate increased over the last decade spiking 31% from 2014 to 2016 and remaining at at this elevated level.

Gun Death Rates in the United States,2010-2019

Age-adjusted rate per 100,000

Gun violence is an epidemic that reaches communities large and small, but it is more common in some places than others. Among the states in 2019, Alaska had the highest gun death rate (24.40 per 100,000 people), followed by Mississippi, Wyoming, and New Mexico (24.23, 22.33, and 22.27 per 100,000, respectively). Conversely, Massachusetts had the lowest gun death rate (3.40 per 100,000 people), followed by New York, New Jersey, and Hawaii (3.94, 4.13, and 4.42 per 100,000, respectively).72

Source: CDC WONDER.

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Gun Violence in the United States - The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence

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Gun violence is a public health epidemic in the United States. Every year nearly 40,000 Americans are killed by guns, including more than 23,000 who die by firearm suicide, 14,000 who die by firearm homicide, more than 500 who die by legal intervention,12 nearly 500 who die by unintentional firearm injuries, and more than 300 who die by undetermined intent.12 This equates to more than 100 gun deaths every single day.

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Only 48% of Americans think that gun violence is a big issue.
81% of Democrats think that gun control laws should be stricter compared to the 27% of Republicans who do.
The group of people who stood the most for stricter gun laws were non-gun owners living in urban areas where there are large rates of gun violence.

Many gun owning republicans think that adding more guns to the mix will fix the issue. 66% agree with giving teachers guns to protect students in schools from threats.

This is such a backwards way of thinking. Instead of admitting that guns are the issue and banning them, they think giving teachers guns to protect their students from shooting threats is a better idea, when really all it does is add more guns to the mix.

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Here are some key findings about Americans’ attitudes about gun violence, gun policy and other subjects, drawn from recent surveys.

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People who die from accidental shootings are 3x more likely to be shot in their own home from firearms owned by family members.
85% of children killed by firearms are killed in their own home.
Abusive relationships also are 8x more likely to end in homicide  once firearms are introduced.

Many gun owning parents think that leaving their guns in the home without a case/being locked away is safe enough if their children don't know where they are, but 40% of children can locate these weapons and 36% have handled them themselves.
If gun owners really do own them to protect the home, there's still no reason to own assault rifles. These guns have way too much power and are often used in school shootings/mass shootings when they fall into the wrong hands.
These weapons are the weapon of choice for many looking to cause as many casualties as possible and therefore should be banned from being owned by the public.
In 2014 there were mass shootings every 64 days on average which was triple the amount from 1982-2011.

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Gun Violence: Facts and Statistics

According to the scientific literature, American children face a substantial risk of exposure to firearm injury and death. Following are additional relevant gun violence facts:

In the Home

In 2019, 4,483 young people ages 10-24 were victims of homicide - an average of 12 each day.

According to a 2022 analysis, gun injuries are the leading cause of death among U.S. children and teens ages 1-19.

There are more than 393 million guns in circulation in the United States - approximately 120.5 guns for every 100 people.

1.7 million children live with unlocked, loaded guns - 1 out of 3 homes with kids have guns.

Between 2014 and 2018, more than 15,000 children (ages 19 and under) died due to firearms, and at least 13,000 sustained unintentional firearm-related injury or death

An emergency department visit for non-fatal assault injury places a youth at 40% higher risk for subsequent firearm injury.

People that die from accidental shooting were more than three times as likely to live in a home with a firearm

Among younger children (ages 0-12 years) who are killed by a firearm, 85% are killed in their own home

People who report "firearm access" are at twice the risk of homicide and more than three times the risk of suicide compared to those who do not own or have access to firearms.

Suicide rates are much higher in states with higher rates of gun ownership, even after controlling for differences among states for poverty, urbanization, unemployment, mental illness, and alcohol or drug abuse.

Among suicide victims requiring hospital treatment, suicide attempts with a firearm are much more deadly than attempts by jumping or drug poisoning - 90% die compared to 34% and 2% respectively. About 90% of those that survive a suicide attempt do not go on to die by suicide.

States implementing universal background checks and mandatory waiting periods prior to the purchase of a firearm have lower rates of suicides than states without this legislation. To read more about suicide and firearms, click here.

In states with increased gun availability, there were higher rates of child deaths due to firearms.

The vast majority of accidental firearm deaths among children are related to child access to firearms - either self-inflicted or at the hands of another child.

Studies have shown that states with Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws have a lower rate of unintentional death than states without CAP laws.

Domestic violence is more likely to turn deadly with a gun in the home. An abusive partner's access to a firearm increases the risk of homicide eight-fold for women in physically abusive relationships. Read more about the impact of child exposure to domestic violence.

Safe Storage of Guns in the Home

The U.S. General Accounting Office estimated that 31% of accidental deaths caused by firearms might be prevented with the addition of two devices: a child-proof safety lock and a loading indicator.

Approximately one in three guns in homes with children is kept loaded and unlocked.

Most parents don't think their child knows where their gun is stored, but when researchers ask children directly, 40% of these same children are able to correctly identify the location of the gun. Parents also often incorrectly believe their child has never handled their gun, when in reality, 36% of children say they have.

More than 80% of guns used by youth in suicide attempts were kept in the home of the victim, a relative, or a friend.

Gun owners in a household are more likely to report that their gun is stored unlocked and loaded, compared to the non-owners in those households. This suggests a need for better education of household members regarding safe storage in homes with children.

Assault-style Weapons

These weapons are responsible for a minority of gun deaths in the US, but have become the weapon of choice for the assailant whose intent is chaos and casualties.

In a December 2020 review of mass shootings in the U.S., 118 mass shootings have occurred since 1982, from which approximately 83 semi-automatic handguns and 94 assault weapons and weapons with high magazine capacity were recovered.

On May 18, 2018, a teen shooter used a shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver that he took from his father to kill 10 people and wound 10 others at Santa Fe High School in Texas; this marked the 1,686th mass shooting since Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.

In 2017 alone, 11 mass shootings in the US caused 117 fatalities and 587 injuries occurring in concert, religious, workplace, airport, and shopping venues and in the community.

At Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. in 2012, Adam Lanza reportedly fired more than 150 shots in less than five minutes from his assault-style rifle with a high capacity magazine.

On June 12, 2016 at Pulse Nightclub, a single shooter killed 49 people and injured 53. It was the worst mass shooting in US history until the mass shooting in Las Vegas in October 2017 took 58 lives and left 546 injured.

In February 2018, a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL left 17 people dead and 14 wounded. The teen shooter used an AR-15 semi-automatic style weapon, the same weapon used during the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

States that restrict assault weapons also have the lowest per capita homicide rates. However, because guns are easily trafficked in interstate and international commerce, federal rules are needed.

Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health demonstrated that from 1982 to 2011, mass shootings occurred every 200 days on average. From late 2011 to 2014, they found mass shootings had occurred at triple that rate-every 64 days on average.

Gun Violence Injury Prevention Research

Federal legislation passed in 1997 stated that "none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) may be used to advocate or promote gun control." The vague nature of this law, and its 2011 extension to the National Institutes of Health, has effectively prevented federal funding for firearms-related research.

In 2013, following the Sandy Hook shooting, former President Barack Obama issued an executive order calling for the CDC to "conduct or sponsor research into the causes of gun violence and the ways to prevent it". Despite this and without specific appropriations from U.S. Congress, new research proposals remain unfunded.

After the federal legislation preventing firearm research, there were 25% fewer publications on firearms compared to what would have been expected relative to other causes of death in children.

In March 2018, a new spending bill clarified that the CDC can conduct research into gun violence but did not allocate specific funding toward this effort.

In 2019, Congress specifically allocated funds to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for firearm research for the first time in more than 20 years.

Pennsylvania-specific Gun Violence

According to the CDC, there were 1,636 firearm fatalities in Pennsylvania in 2017.

From 2008-2017, a gun homicide occurred every 17 hours in Pennsylvania.

In 2018, there were 1,757 firearm related injuries in Pennsylvania; almost half of these were in persons under 25 years old. More than half (913) of all firearm related injuries in Pennsylvania occurred in Philadelphia County. The firearm mortality rate for Pennsylvania is 12 per 100,000 people, slightly higher than the national average and higher than any of our neighboring states.

In Pennsylvania, suicide and homicide accounts for over 98% of all firearm-related deaths according to data collected from 2013-2017.

Self-injury of Pennsylvanians by firearm is fatal 91% of the time, compared to hanging and poisonings which are fatal 79% and 3% of the time, respectively.

Read more about the issue and about public health approaches to gun violence on the Research in Action Blog.

Updated January 2021

There are numerous sources for the gun violence facts and statistics listed above including databases from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Pennsylvania Department of Health, and Mother Jones; research reports from Congressional Research Service, US General Accounting Office, Brady Campaign, and Every Town for Gun Safety; and many peer-reviewed journal articles. This page was reviewed by physician-scientists from the Center for Violence Prevention. If you would like to request a specific citation on gun violence, please use the website's Contact Us form.

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It is a fact that American children face a substantial risk of exposure to firearm injury and death according to scientific literature. Learn more gun violence facts.

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If we remain indifferent about this topic....

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If we remain indifferent about this topic....

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Innocent people will continue to die, children will fear being in schools, and public places will always feel unsafe.
If we don't change gun laws or ban weapons, the number of people dying from gun violence will just go up and up. Even over the past few years, numbers have gone up and people all over the US  feel unsafe.
A start of a solution for this issue would be to enforce stricter gun laws, stopping people from buying weapons of destruction or at least making it a law to lock away guns in homes.

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Sorry I messed up at the end lol