| |
At the end of July 2022, the following Opinion article appeared on the editorial page of my
local newspaper.
“Americans have been saddened by the recent mass shootings that have occurred in recent weeks across
the country in Buffalo, Uvalde, and Highland Park.
“But as much as these tragic events have seared our national consciousness and brought demands for
action by our elected officials for appropriate gun legislation, there is a far worse aspect of the epidemic of gun violence
that occurs day-in and day-out throughout the United States.
“We are referring to the shooting of women by their domestic partners. Each and every year, 600 women
are murdered with a gun by their partners. We’ll do the math for you — that works out to a woman who is shot and killed every
14 hours by her present or former significant other.
“The statisticians also tell us that the possession of a gun by a domestic partner makes it five
times more likely that a woman will be killed than if the domestic partner did not have a gun.
“In short, the more guns there are, the more women who are murdered by their partners.
“Yes, the shootings in schools and malls and supermarkets horrify us and make us feel not safe
anywhere, even at a Fourth of July parade.
“But the reality is that an American woman in a household with a handgun is far more at risk for
being shot and killed than any of us by some random angry person with an AR-15.”
(Ref. 1)
Accidental shooting death statistics can be a sobering reminder of mortality. And it’s important to
know the shooting death statistics because they give some perspective on how big an issue accidental shooting deaths really
are in the United States.
Tragically, accidental gun deaths occur mainly to those under 25 years old. Adolescents are
particularly susceptible to accidental shootings because of specific behavioral characteristics associated with
adolescence, such as impulsivity, feelings of invincibility, and curiosity about firearms.
In 2021 there were at least 377 unintentional shootings by children.
This resulted in 154 deaths and 242 injuries in the United States.
In 2021, unintentional shooting deaths accounted for over 4% (2,007) of total gun related
deaths (44,912) in the United States.
The majority of people killed in firearm accidents are under age 24, and most of these young people
are being shot by someone else, usually someone their own age. The shooter is typically a friend or family member, often an
older brother. A statistically significant association exists between gun availability and the rates of unintentional
firearm deaths, homicides, and suicides.
In the United States, over 4.6 million American children live in homes with at least 1 unloaded,
unlocked gun, setting the scene for possible tragedy if firearms are not locked and stored properly.
In 2020, by March when compared to March 2019, accidental shooting deaths by minors spiked by 43%.
A study from 2014 showed that victims of unintentional shootings were three times more likely to live in a household with a
firearm. A 2001 study found that regardless of age, people are nine times more likely to die from unintentional firearm
injuries when they live in states with more guns, relative to states with fewer
guns.[2]
MESSAGE: A Lot of gun deaths and injuries occur in these United States simply because so
many guns are available and/or are not properly secured!
So how do we reduce the number of accidental shooting deaths? Keeping a gun out of the hands
of people is the best way to prevent accidental gun deaths, i.e., get rid of all these weapons of death and
injury!
The spate of shooting attacks in communities such as Highland Park, Ill., Uvalde, Tex., and
Buffalo, NY has riveted attention on America’s staggering number of public mass killings. But the rising number of
gun deaths in the United States extends far beyond such high-profile episodes, emerging nearly every day inside homes, outside
bars and on the streets of many cities, according to federal data.
The surge in gun violence comes 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. At the same time, the rate of gun deaths
in those years hit the highest level since 1995, with more than 45,000 fatalities each year.
Over the long Fourth of July weekend in 2022, when 7 people were killed and dozens wounded at a
parade in Highland Park, numerous other fatal shootings played out across the country. In nearby Chicago, 10 people were
killed and more than 60 wounded in a string of shootings over the weekend. One person was killed and 4 were wounded in a
shooting outside a Sacramento nightclub. Two people were shot to death at a home in Haltom City, Tex., and a neighbor and
3 police officers were injured. A man was fatally shot in Clinton, N.C.; hours later, 6 people, including 2 children, were
injured in a separate shooting there.
The ample access to guns plays a significant role in the upward spiraling number of shooting
deaths and woundings experts said. Americans are arming themselves in the face of deepening fears and divisions,
frightening public incidents involving gunfire or violence, or simply because they know others may also have guns. Data
shows that gun sales increase in the wake of violence, political events and uncertainty.
With an estimated 400 million guns in the country, a figure that eclipses the U.S. population,
There is a self-fulfilling prophecy of, “I need a gun because everyone else around me has a gun.”
The agonizing frequency of nonfatal shootings and firearm deaths is a uniquely American
phenomenon. Many other countries have disadvantaged folks who are angry and alienated. But there are no guns there.
Mass killings, particularly those in which a gunman opens fire in a crowded public space, tend to
draw much more attention than daily violence. But these shootings represent just a fraction of gun violence overall.
Defining a mass shooting as four or more people killed, such cases account for fewer than 1% of all people killed
by firearms. Still, the July 4th 2022 shooting rampage in Illinois marked the 15th time in just the first
7 months 2022 that 4 or more people were killed in a shooting.
The vast majority of gun deaths in America are either suicides or homicides, with accidental or
undetermined gun deaths representing a small fraction of the overall share. Two different demographic groups bear the brunt
of escalating gun violence and are most likely to die of a gunshot wound in America: young Black men and older White men.
White men are six times as likely to die by suicide as other Americans. Black men are 17 times as likely to be
killed with a gun fired by someone else. - rarely a White policeman!
About 60% of the gun deaths in the United States each year are suicides, according to CDC data
spanning the past 20 years. Firearms accounted for about 8% of suicide attempts but slightly more than 50% of the 47,511
suicide deaths in 2019. Men are nearly four times as likely as women to die in a suicide attempt, mainly because they are
much more likely to use a gun.
Of the 90,498 gun deaths in 2020 and 2021, 38,796 were homicides. Nearly 21,000 of those victims
were Black men. In 2020, while the overall crime rate nationwide fell, that was not true for shootings. That year, there was
an “unparalleled” surge in people killed by firearms compared with 2019.
In the wake of mass shootings, politicians are often quick to invoke mental health as a major cause.
“Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. Period,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) said shortly after
the Uvalde shooting in May of 2022. But three decades of research has established that people with mental illness are
responsible for just a small percentage of interpersonal and gun violence. Numerous studies have reached the same
conclusion: While people with illnesses such as schizophrenia have a somewhat greater risk of committing violent acts than
other members of the public, and substance use increases that risk, the vast majority of people with mental illness
never perpetrate violence. In fact, they are more likely to be victims of violence. But there is one major,
well-established connection between mental illness and gun violence: suicide. A Rand report summarizing other studies found
higher rates of suicide among people with mental health issues that included depression and schizophrenia. It’s clear that
many other factors are more closely associated with gun violence than mental
illness.[3]
These statistics clearly show that more and stricter background checks for mental illnesses,
along with more “Red Flag” laws aimed at uncovering firearm applicants with mental illnesses will have no major effect on the
escalting gun violence in America! Such actions merely are “feel-good” responses to the increasing problem of gun
violence in
the United States.
As I’ve written before, the real solution to gun violence in America is: the “repeal of the
Second Amendment and the removal of ALL guns from the hands of everyone in this country except for law enforcement
and those with an EXTRELY URGENT requirement for the possession of a
firearm!” (Ref. 4)
And with respect to those supposedly “stricter” gun control laws enacted by Congress and the
President after the Uvalde, Texas school shootings, “The words, More and stricter gun control laws! are
nothing but Trojan Horses that have been constructed by gun lovers, their supporters, and the politicians that they have
bought! Instead, it’s time to hear the words – NO MORE GUNS!” (Ref.
5) period.
“Ban guns. All guns. Get rid of guns in homes, and on the streets . . . Not just because of . . .
whichever mass shooting may pop up next, but also
not not because of those. Don’t sort the population into those who might do something evil or foolish or
self-destructive with a gun and those who surely will not. As if this could be known - as if it could be assessed without
massively violating civil liberties and stigmatizing the mentally ill. Ban guns! Not just gun violence.
Not just certain guns. Not just already-technically-illegal guns.
All of them.” (Ref. 6)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References:
- MASS SHOOTINGS GET ALL THE ATTENTION, BUT THIS IS WORSE,
The Winthrop Sun Transcript: pge 6,
28 July 2022.
- 2021 ACCIDENTAL GUN DEATH STATISTICS IN THE US, Aftermath, February 2022.
- The staggering scope of U.S. gun deaths goes far beyond mass shootings, Mark Berman,
Lenny Bernstein,
Dan Keating, Andrew Ba Tran and Artur Galocha, The Washington Post, 8 July 2022.
- Gun Legislation is a FRAUD !!!, David Burton, Son of Elihayu: Article 535, 7 July 2022.
- Gun Lovers Win Again – More Gun Deaths to Follow!, David Burton,v Son of Elihayu: Article 534,
30 June 2022.
- It’s Time to Ban Guns. Yes, All of Them., Phoebe Maltz Bovy, The New Republic,
10 December 2015.
|
|
