Some Reliable Facts & Sources on Gun Violence in the United States
Before a child in the U.S. reaches 15,
when compared to a child in the rest of the industrialized world, he or she is:
5 times more likely to be murdered,
Twice as likely to commit suicide,
12 times more likely to die a gun related death.
Harvard Injury Control Research Center, Matthew Miller: Journal of Trauma, February 2002
Sources to Begin Your Research
Million Mom March for Sensible Gun Laws http://www.bradycampaign.org/chapters/
National Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) www.psr.org/
Violence Prevention Initiative of the Medical College of WI http://www.mcw.edu/vpi.html
Health Policy Advocates
Firearm Injury Center of the Medical College of WI www.mcw.edu/fic/
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence www.bradycampaign.org
Handgun Epidemic Lowering Plan (HELP) www.helpnetwork.org
Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research School of Public Health support.jhsph.edu/departments/gunpolicy
Handgun Control www.handguncontrol.org
Sources for Curricular Research
http://www.pbs.org/inthemix/educators/livedie_gun.html
http://bowlingforcolumbine.michaelmoore.com/library/teachers/index.php
http://www.dpw.state.pa.us/ucmprd/groups/public/documents/document/s_001968.pdf
Sample Research Articles
Financial Costs
- The Annual Bill To The Nation Annual costs of gun violence in the US have been estimated at between $100 billion and $126 billion. (Source: Miller and Cohen, passim. )
Everyone’s Problem
- In 2002, 30,242 people were killed by guns in America — 83 people a day — including 17,108 suicides; 11,829 homicides; and 762 unintentional or accidental shootings. (Source: CDC, NCIPC, Web-based Injury Statistics Query Reporting System, 2002)
- Firearms are the second-leading cause of death (after motor vehicle accidents) for young people 19 and under in the U.S. (Source: WISQARS, Leading Causes of Death and Injury Mortality Reports Database, National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control)
- Each year from 1993 to 1997, gun murders were committed by 1,621 killers under the age of 18.
(Source: Supplemental Homicide Data from the FBI)
- “The firearm injury epidemic, due largely to handgun injuries, is 10 times larger than the polio epidemic of the first half of this century.” (Source: Christoffel, Katherine Kaufer, “Handguns and the Environments of Children”, Children’s Environments, 12(1), 1995, p. 42)
- More children and young adults die from suicide each year than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, and chronic lung disease combined. (Source: U.S. Congress)
Women & Firearms
- Most women are killed by their intimate partners and over two-thirds are killed by guns. (Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Homicide Trends in the U.S.: Intimate Homicide. USDOJ)
- In 1998, women were 101 times more likely to be murdered with a handgun than to use a handgun to kill in self-defense. Women were 302 times more likely to be murdered with a handgun than to use a handgun to kill a stranger in self-defense. Women were 83 times more likely to be murdered by an intimate acquaintance with a handgun than to kill an intimate acquaintance in self-defense. (Source: Violence Policy Center, A Deadly Myth: Women, Handguns, and Self-Defense. Washington, D.C., 2001, 2-3)
Suicide & Firearms
- In 2001, gun-related completed suicides accounted for 6,869 (57%) of all gun related deaths in the U. S.: that’s 46 lives every day that are lost to gun violence. (Source: National Vital Statistics Report, Vol. 52, No. 3, National Center for Health Statistics(NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), September 25, 2003)
- A gun in the home is 11 times more likely to be used in an attempted suicide than to be used to injure or kill in self-defense. (Source: Kellermann AL,Injuries and Deaths due to Firearms in the Home, Journal of Trauma, 1998; 45(2):263-67)
