10 shocking truths about gun violence
In a special feature in today’s “Guardian” newspaper, it is suggested that there are almost one billions guns around the world and that over a million around the globe are injured by guns each year.
The most shocking situation is that in the United States:
“The US has more guns per person than any other country in the world. Stemming from a constitutional right to bear arms, it has given birth to an industry that in 2013 helped sustain a quarter of a million jobs, directly or indirectly, creating $38bn in annual economic activity.
Today, at almost 140,000, there are about 10 times more federally licensed sellers in the US than there are McDonald’s. They have plenty to sell – more than 10.8m guns were manufactured in the US in 2013, a 220% rise from a decade before. This does not include the 5.5m guns imported into the US that year.
Where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths. The US has the highest per capita rate of firearm murders of all developed countries. While figures are hard to come by, data from the Center for Disease Control shows that in 2013 there were as many as 100,598 non-fatal intentional shootings in the US (the lowest estimate was 23,842). That year saw 33,636 fatal shootings (including suicides).
The data offers stark reading. In 2013, FBI figures show 1,075 people under the age of 19 killed by guns in the US, 37 of them under five years old. More American teenagers and children were killed that year by gunfire than US military in any given year in Iraq or Afghanistan.”