Gun Violence: The Facts

Each day, 12 children die from gun violence in America alone. Another 32 are shot and injured. Guns have become the leading cause of death among American children and teens.

There have been 300 mass shootings in America so far in 2022. The shooting at University of Virginia in Charlottesville that left three people dead was one of nine mass shootings in the past 72 hours (about 3 days) as of today, Monday the 14th. This shooting comes nearly six months after the rampage at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 children and 2 teachers dead. Since then, there have been 385 mass shootings across the country.

Mass shootings are defined as an incident where four or more people are killed, not including the shooter. Not a single week in 2022 has passed without at least four mass shootings.

Despite these horrendous statistics, the staggering scope of U.S. gun deaths goes far beyond mass shootings. The rising number of gun deaths in America extends beyond these tragedies, emerging every day inside homes, outside bars, and on the streets according to federal data.

The surge in gun violence is matched as firearm purchases rose to record levels in 2020 and 2021, with more than 43 million guns estimated to have been purchased during that period according to a Washington Post analysis of federal data on gun background checks. At the same time, gun death rates hit the highest level since 1995, with more than 45,000 casualties (about twice the seating capacity of Madison Square Garden) each year.

Local leaders, law enforcement officials, and anti-violence workers have said they have seen a troubling trend recently in which common disputes, that would have normally led to fistfights, instead escalated rapidly to gunfire.

“What we’re seeing is a different type of violence here in Pittsburgh,” said the Rev. Eileen Smith, executive director of the South Pittsburgh Coalition for Peace, a nonprofit that includes violence interrupters. “They’re not fighting, at least not outside of school. They’re killing.”

Ample access to guns plays an incredibly significant role, experts say. Americans everywhere are arming themselves in the face of deepening fears, frightening public incidents involving gunfire or violence, or simply because they know others who may also have guns. Data has shown repeatedly that gun sales increase in the wake of violence, political events, and uncertainty. Large spikes occurred after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting; amid coronavirus shutdowns, racial justice protests and the presidential election in 2020; and after the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol.

The agonizing frequency of nonfatal shootings and firearm deaths, experts said, has become a uniquely American phenomenon.

Data show gun deaths surged almost everywhere in America in 2020, “a very broad phenomenon” and one that “was almost as intense outside of metro areas as it was inside of metropolitan areas,” said Philip J. Cook, a Duke University professor emeritus of public policy and economics.

In 2020, while the overall crime rate nationwide fell, “that was not true for shootings,” Cook said. That year, he said, there was an “unparalleled” surge in people killed by firearms compared with 2019.

There is little consensus as to why gun sales and deaths have jumped so much over the past two years. The only clear thing, Cook said, is that “the increase in homicide was almost entirely an increase in gun homicide.”

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/mass-shootings-in-2022/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2022/gun-deaths-per-year-usa/?itid=co_gun-control_1