Preventing Gun Violence

Hi everyone! As you all know, the United States has a huge amount of gun violence. I wanted to shed some light on this disturbing topic.

How big is the United States’ gun violence problem?

Most of us know that the United States has a major gun violence problem, but few of us understand its extent. Here are the sobering statistics. In 2021, the United States had 692 mass shootings, and in 2020 there were 610 mass shootings. In 2021 alone, 692 people had died in mass shootings, 24,090 people died from being shot in suicides, and 20,955 people died from being shot in homicides. That same year, roughly 45,000 people died from gun fire, while about 43,000 died in car accidents. There are roughly three times the number of licensed drivers as gun owners, so the amount of gun deaths is alarming (Saldana).

Even day to day, the numbers are shocking. Every day, roughly 321 people are shot, including 22 minors. Roughly 111 of those people die, including 5 minors. Out of the people who die, most die by murder or suicide, but at least one was killed by accident, and at least one was killed by law enforcement. Out of the minors who were shot, roughly 8 were shot by accident and 8 were shot by guns left unsecured and unattended at their homes (Saldana).

The United States’ number of gun deaths makes it an outlier among the world’s developed countries. The U.S. ranks 10^th out of countries with the highest gun deaths at 12.21 deaths per 100,000 people, and 1^st out of countries with high incomes. By comparison, Canada only has 2.05 deaths per 100,000 people, while Mexico has 6.34 deaths per 100,000 people. (Saldana).

The United States was not always this violent. The first recognized mass shooting was in 1966. In the nine years between 1966 and 1975, there were 12 mass shootings. By 2022, roughly 4 mass shootings were happening each week (Saldana).

Why does the United States have more gun related deaths than any other developed country?

The United States likely has many gun related deaths since it has the most civilian-owned guns out of any country in the world. Although our country only has 4.4% of the world’s population, it has 42% of the civilian-owned guns in the world. At 332 million people and 393 million guns, America has 120.5 guns for every 100 people. That is because 44% of Americans have guns in their households, and the average American gun owner has eight guns. By comparison, Canadians have about a third of the guns at 34.7 guns per 100 people (Saldana).

Guns and Mental Health
One common hypothesis is that the United States has more shootings because its people have more mental health problems. However, the percentage of Americans with mental illness is roughly the same as that in other developed countries. About 16.9% of the U.S. population is mentally ill, and there are 12.2 gun related deaths per 100,000 people. In Canada, 14.9% of the population is mentally ill, but there are 2.05 deaths per 100,000 people. In Australia, about 19.3% of the population is mentally ill, but there are 1.04 deaths per 100,000 people. Most developed countries have similar statistics to Canada and Australia. Clearly, Americans’ poor mental health is not the cause of increased shootings (Saldana).

Do guns keep society safer?

One prevalent theory is that places with more gun owners are safer since criminals will be afraid to cause trouble if they know that average, decent people are armed. However, that idea is not necessarily the case. In 2015, the Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard University partnered up to study firearm data from the FBI and CDC. They found that firearm assaults were 6.8 times more common in states with the most guns versus those with the least (Moyer). Those results could either mean that people in violent areas buy more guns or that more guns cause more violence.

In addition, states with lax gun laws usually have more gun deaths. Hawaii has the least gun related deaths in the country, at 3.4 per 100,000 people. It ranks 4^th on the Giffords Law Center’s list of strictest gun laws. On the other hand, Mississippi has the most gun related deaths at 28.6 deaths per 100,000 people. Mississippi ranks 45^th on the Giffords Law Center’s list. Outside of Hawaii and Mississippi, states with stricter gun laws generally have less gun related deaths (Saldana).

A number of studies have been done to determine whether laws allowing concealed carrying make society safer or more dangerous. In 1997, a study by John R. Lott Jr. and David B. Mustard found that murder rates dropped 7.65% in the ten states that made it easier to carry concealed weapons. However, John Donohue conducted a similar study that found that the rate of violent crime was 13 to 15% higher after states eased permit requirements. Donohue also found that violent crime dropped drastically between 1977 and 2014 in states where gun permits were difficult to get, but only dropped a little in places where gun permits were easy to get. A third study by Donohue determined that rape rates in states with loose gun permit laws were the same or higher than rape rates in states with strict permit laws (Moyer). More civilian-owned guns does not necessarily correlate with less crime.

Some people have more nuanced views. David Hemenway is the director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and an expert on the public health impact of gun violence. According to him, there is no clear cause and effect between the United States’ crime rate and its number of guns. However, guns make crimes more deadly (“Do guns make us safer?”).

Do guns keep individuals safer?

Roughly 67% of all gun owners (and 71% of female gun owners) say that they own guns for protection (Mark). However, guns in the home can actually be a danger to oneself and one’s family. In the 1980s and 1990s, Arthur Kellermann studied how having guns in one’s home affected one’s risk of being killed by homicide and suicide. He found that if a person had one or more guns in their home, they were 70% more likely to die in a homicide and 480% more likely to die in a suicide. Kellermann and his colleagues estimated that guns in the home were 4 times more likely to cause an accidental shooting, 7 times more likely to be used in an assault or homicide, and 11 times more likely to be used in a suicide than to be used in self-defense. Kellermann’s study was criticized because his statistics may have been skewed by confounding variables. In 2003, Douglas Wiebe did a similar study and controlled for confounding variables. His statistics showed that having one or more guns in one’s home caused a 41% increase in likelihood of a homicide and a 244% increase in likeliness of a suicide (Moyer). The increased likelihood of a homicide could be due to domestic violence since 56% of intimate partner homicides are gun related (Saldana). As well as increasing homicides and suicides in homes, criminals sometimes break into people’s homes to specifically steal guns (Moyer).

Guns and Police
States with many guns are more dangerous for both police officers and anyone they might arrest. Police are more likely to be killed in states with high gun ownership. As a result, officers are more fearful and more likely to shoot anyone they perceive as a threat. According to a study by Northeastern and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, civilians are 40% more likely to be killed by police in states with high rates of gun ownership. In fact, people are 3.6 times more likely to be killed in a police shooting in the ten states with the most guns than in the five states with the fewest guns. The less guns in a state, the safer it is for both police and anyone they might pull over or arrest (Thomsen).

Are guns useful for self-defense in the case of an attack or break in?

Its unclear how many Americans use guns for self-defense annually. One study by Gary Kleck and Marc Gertz estimated that 2.5 million Americans use guns for self-defense annually, while other studies using information from the National Crime Victimization Survey only estimated that number to be 65,000 or 100,000 Americans (Moyer, “Do guns make us safer?”). The difference between the studies is likely that the National Crime Victimization Survey verified that the people it questioned were attack victims, while Kleck and Gertz’s study had a more general definition of self-defense (Moyer).

Guns can be helpful for self-defense and property defense, but its inconclusive how helpful they are. A study by Jongyeon Tark and Gary Kleck compared sixteen types of victim self-protection in crime incidents. It found that forceful tactics, including using a gun, were the best to reduce injury. Injuries following victim resistance were almost always minor. However, the study had a small sample size so its findings could be unstable (Tark). According to Hemenway, on the other hand, there is no good evidence that using a gun in self-defense reduces one’s likelihood of injury. Using a gun does reduce one’s risk of property loss, but so does using another weapon, like a mace or baseball bat (“Do guns make us safer?”).

Using a gun in self-defense is helpful in some cases, but it doesn’t always work since most people don’t have the training they need to win in a gun fight. Also, using a gun to defend property is not always the best idea because the property is not worth killing someone over (Burnett).

What about Second Amendment rights?

People have a constitutional right to life, even if it doesn’t benefit the rest of society. For instance, it would be wrong to kill a person and harvest their organs in order to save five other people. If people have a right to life, it makes sense that they would also have a right to self-defense and thus a right to bear arms (Hsiao). However, having restrictions on the right to bear arms is not a new phenomenon. Historical gun control dates back to the time of the Founding Fathers.

The Second Amendment reads “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” (“Constitution of the United States”). Historically, Americans at the time of the Founding Fathers believed that governments used soldiers to oppress their people. As a result, they wanted to make sure the federal government only raised armies when the country was at war. For emergencies, the United States had militias, which were made up of regular people who had their own weapons and did basic, unpaid military training. The Second Amendment comforted many Americans because they believed that if a federal army tried to take control, armed citizens would be able to defeat them (Lund and Winkler).

At the time of the Founding Fathers, there were many different state laws regulating guns. Armed citizens were required to attend mandatory musters and gun inspections. States had registries of civilian-owned guns, and officials sometimes went door to door to collect information for the registries. Laws required some people to have guns good enough for military service, while other laws prevented certain people from owning guns. For instance, the leadership at the time saw slaves and loyalists as dangerous, so they were prohibited from owning guns (Winkler). When the Fourteenth Amendment was passed, it extended the Bill of Rights’ control to the states as well, making many of the state laws unconstitutional (Lund and Winkler). However, courts still legislated according to which gun laws they found “reasonable” until recent times (Winkler).

That fact changed due to several Supreme Court cases, the most recent being New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. In the past, gun laws would apply if either the actions they regulated were outside the Second Amendment’s historical jurisdiction or if the law was “substantially related to the achievement of an important governmental interest”. During the Supreme Court Case Bruen, however, the Court decided that gun laws had to follow the United States’ historical tradition of firearm regulation. One justice suggested that courts use analogies to determine whether modern gun rulings are consistent with tradition (Coyle). As a result, modern gun laws now have to be compared to ones in the late 1700s.

While the Founding Fathers might not support many modern gun laws, they probably wouldn’t bat an eyelash at some modern laws, such as ones prohibiting people from owning firearms if they are under domestic violence restraining orders. If they believed it was appropriate to prevent loyalists from owning guns, it would make sense that violent offenders would be prevented from owning guns as well.

Which (if any) gun control laws are effective?

A number of studies have investigated if gun control laws are helpful. One study found that three laws were associated with less firearm deaths: background checks on gun purchases, background checks on ammunition, and firearm identification, which allows police to identify which gun a bullet came from. It estimated that background checks on gun purchases would bring down the United States’ gun related death rate from 10.3 deaths to 4.46 deaths per 100,000 people, background checks on ammunition would bring down the death rate to 1.99 deaths per 100,000 people, and firearm identification would bring down the death rate to 1.81 deaths per 100,000 people (“Gauging the Effectiveness of Gun Control Laws”).

A similar study tracked the effects of laws on gun related deaths between 1991 and 2016. It found that universal background checks dropped the homicide rate by 15%, while preventing violent criminals from owning guns dropped the homicide rate by 18%. On the other hand, “shall-issue” laws correlated with a 10% rise in the homicide rate. “Shall-issue” laws force the police to approve concealed-carry permits unless the applicant meets certain explicit criteria, while “may-issue” laws allow the police to use their discretion. In terms of laws that are tied to the suicide rate, banning certain unsafe guns creates a 6.4% reduction in the suicide rate, while not requiring a permit for concealed carrying creates a 5.1% increase in suicide (Florida).

Certain laws are helpful in combination. If a state has background checks, bans on violent offenders owning guns, and “may-issue” laws, its homicide rate reduced by roughly 36%. A state with two of the laws will have a homicide rate reduced by 13%, and a state with one will have a homicide rate reduced by 6% (Florida).

Restricting access to who has guns is more helpful than restricting access to certain types of guns (Florida).

Laws That Prevent Homicides

• background checks on gun purchases
• background checks on ammunition
• laws prohibiting violent offenders from owning guns
• firearm identification, such as microstamping or ballistic fingerprinting (“Gauging the Effectiveness of Gun Control Laws”)
• “may-issue” laws, which give police discretion over who to issue gun carrying permits to

Laws That Prevent Suicides

• “may-issue” laws
• laws banning junk guns, or guns that don’t meet certain safety requirements

Some of those laws are supported by the majority of Americans. For instance, 89% of Americans support universal background checks (Saldana). In addition, some states already have many of the laws suggested. For example, Massachusetts has background checks, “may-issue” laws, and laws prohibiting violent offenders from having weapons. That is likely one reason the state has one of the lowest homicide rates in the nation (Colarossi).

Does violence in the media add to gun violence?

Violence in media, such as movies, makes kids more aggressive (“Violence in the Media and Entertainment”). Evidence shows that watching gun violence makes it more likely for young people to be involved in it. One study on the topic covered the lives of a number of young people in Flint, Michigan from 2006 to 2016. It showed that earlier exposure to violence in video games made kids more likely to use guns or threaten to use guns (Wadley).

Another correlation between media and gun violence is that school shooters are more likely to be interested in violent media. According to a study by the U.S. Secret Service and Department of Education, half of attackers in targeted school violence were interested in violent media including books, movies, and video games. It’s unclear whether they were influenced by the media or if they were drawn to violence in the first place (“Violent video games and young people”).

While media likely makes individuals more violent, it does not always correlate with societal trends. A study by Christopher J. Ferguson at Stetson University compared the amounts of graphic violence in movies with the homicide rates between 1920 and 2011. The study couldn’t find any meaningful relationship. A second part of the study compared video game violence with youth violence between 1996 and 2011. Violence in video games increased over that time, while youth violence decreased. However, the study period was too short to draw strong conclusions (Maylie).

Guns and Hollywood
Ironically, Hollywood is one of the best gun advertisers. While gun advertisements are rare on TV or in major magazines, many guns are featured in movies and TV dramas. Guns are so common because violence in entertainment draws audiences, and guns dramatize violence and suspense. Frequently, gun companies pay movie production companies to put their products in movies. In fact, in 2010, Glock won a “lifetime achievement award for product placement” because Glocks appeared in 22 Number 1 box office films that year. Gun use in movies frequently involves main characters defending themselves and their loved ones, which makes the world seem more dangerous than it is and gives people unrealistic expectations that guns will keep them safe. In addition, people watching the movies want to use guns to emulate the powerful characters. As a result, prominent placement in high-profile films leads to big increases in sales for gun models (Bushman). Even if gun violence in movies does not make people more violent, the more guns people buy increases the risk for more accidental shootings and in-home homicides and suicides.

What can people do to prevent gun violence?

• Encourage government officials to pass country wide laws that require background checks for gun and ammunition purchases, prevent violent offenders from buying guns, and enact “may-issue” laws that give police discretion over issuing gun permits (“Gauging the Effectiveness of Gun Control Laws”, Florida).
• Encourage congresspeople to allocate money for the CDC to conduct research on gun violence. Following controversy about gun violence research done by the CDC in the 1990s, Congress introduced a 1996 spending bill rider that mandated that no funding would be given to the CDC to research gun violence. The rider has been renewed every year since, and in 2011, it was extended to all Department of Health and Human Services agencies, including the NIH. As a result, the CDC and NIH can’t research guns from a public health angle (Moyer). Currently, 50 times more federal funds are spent on motor vehicle crash research than gun violence research (Thomsen), even though they kill similar numbers of Americans.
• Promote public awareness on the role Hollywood plays in gun violence, and encourage movie and video game producers to feature less guns. Other weapons, such as swords, bows, and arrows, can add suspense to media but are less likely to be used in the real world.
• People can also make personal decisions that reduce the risk of gun violence in their lives, such as storing guns safely, not keeping a gun in one’s home, or not showing children excessively violent entertainment.

Conclusions

This post covers a number of statistics on gun violence in the United States, as well as possible ways to prevent it. Hopefully we can all work together to make our country a safer place. Feel free to share this post, comment on it below, or check out some of my other blog articles!

Sources

Here are the sources I used for this article. Feel free to check them out!

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Bushman, Brad and Dan Romer. “Hollywood’s love of guns increases the risk of shootings- both on and off the set.” The Conversation, Oct. 22, 2021, www.theconversation.com/hollywoods-love- of-guns-increases-the-risk-of-shootings-both-on-and-off-the-set-170489. Accessed Feb. 24, 2023.

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