Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Guns and Americans

American civilians own at least 265m firearms, which gives Americans the highest rate of per capita firearm ownership in the world, with about one gun for every American.

Just 3% of American adults own a collective 133m firearms – half of America’s total gun stock.

 A newly released study found that three million Americans carry loaded handguns with them on a daily basis, and nine million Americans do so on a monthly basis. 

More than 38,000 Americans were killed with guns last year. In 2015, the most recent year with detailed data on fatal gun deaths, there were more than 36,000 overall firearm deaths, including 22,000 gun suicides and 13,000 gun homicides. more than 1,000 Americans were shot to death by the police. An Associated Press analysis of official crime data between 2006 and 2014 found an average of 760 Americans were killed with guns each year by spouses, former spouses, or dating partners. The vast majority of these domestic violence victims were women, and about 75% were the current wives or girlfriends of the people who killed them. 

But violent gun injuries represent an even larger toll: more than 60,000 people are shot each year and survive.

Americans overall are “25 times more likely to be murdered with a gun than people in other developed countries”.


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