Gun Violence In The United States

The topic of gun control is often highly politicized in the United States. Gun violence is a significant threat to public health, considering "since the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, more U.S. civilians have been killed with guns than all US. Soldiers who have ever been killed in war-from the Revolution to present day" (Hemenway & Miller, 2013, p. 2035). Different regions of the country have varying laws to either promoting gun safety through regulation or protecting gun owners' right to own and carry firearms. This paper will cover a brief history of gun violence in the United States, provide details about epidemiological research and its limitations, and use success stories from state governments and foreign

Recent events include the 2012 massacre in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, when 20 children and 6 teachers were murdered and the catastrophe in Las Vegas last year where 58 people were killed and over 800 injured when "a depressed man took up position high up in a hotel, with a large arsenal of guns and ammunition, and sprayed bullets upon a music concert audience" (Beckett, 2018). Most recently, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a gunman killed 17 people (Aizenman, 2018). Gun violence in the United States occurs at a higher rate than much of the rest of the world, including neighboring Canada that sees gun violence levels about eight times lower than those in the U.S. (Aizenman, 2018). When comparing the U.S. to its peers based on socioeconomic success, like average education level and income of citizens, it ranks ninth in the world; however, "the U.S. has the 31st highest [gun violence] rate in the world" (Aizenman, 2018). As professor of global health and epidemiology, Ali Mokdad, states, "It is a little surprising that a country like ours should have this level of gun violence. If you compare us to other well-off countries, we really stand out" (Aizenman,

In 2014, a total of about 33,500 people died as a result of firearm injuries ("America's Gun Culture in 10 Charts," 2018). When categorizing firearm deaths, the total of 33,500 deaths in 2014 can be broken down into smaller categories: 21,386 deaths resulting from suicide; 11,008 deaths resulting from homicide; and 1,200 deaths grouped into the "other" category, which "includes accidental deaths and war casualties" ("America's Gun Culture in 10 Charts," 2018). Suicide is by far the biggest contributor to gun deaths in the U.S., accounting for "almost half of all suicides in the U.S." ("America's Gun Culture in 10 Charts," 2018). Included within gun deaths by homicide are mass casualties, which had 14 deaths in 2014, only a tiny fraction of the total annual firearm deaths ("America's Gun Culture in 10 Charts," 2018). Annually, just under 9% of those killed are youth (Ruggles & Rajan, 2014). While it may be easy to identify that the U.S. needs to find a way to lower gun violence, there is no easy