DID YOU KNOW? Gun violence costs U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars a year.

• Gun violence impacts society in countless ways: medical costs, costs of the criminal justice system, security precautions such as metal detectors, and reductions in quality of life because of fear of gun violence. These impacts are estimated to cost U.S. citizens $100 billion annually (Cook, 2000).
  
  
• U.S. lifetime medical costs for gunshot injuries total an estimated $2.3 billion (Cook, 1999). That's over $6 million dollars a day.
  
  
• U.S. taxpayers pay for almost half ($1.1 billion or 49 percent) of lifetime medical costs for gunshot injuries (Cook, 1999).
  
  
• Gunshot injuries due to assaults account for 74% of total lifetime medical costs (Cook, 1999).
  
  
• A study of gunshot victims in Alameda County, CA, found that between 75 and 93 percent of the gun violence victims in the hospital's treatment area were uninsured (Dozier, p. 282 and p. 284).

DID YOU KNOW? Gun violence takes an enormous emotional toll on U. S. children.

• Exposure to violence can cause intrusive thoughts and sleep disturbances, emotional withdrawal, and post-traumatic stress disorder (Garbarino, p. 75).
  
  
• Children injured in gun violence, those who witness violent acts at close proximity, those exposed to high levels of violence in their communities or schools, and those exposed to violent media have a higher likelihood of problems (Garbarino, p. 73).
  
  
• Rural youth exposed to gun violence report significantly more anger, dissociation, post-traumatic stress, and total trauma (Slovak, p. 389).
  
  
• Community violence, including gun violence, has the equivalent emotional impact on children as war or natural disaster (Fowler, p. 227).

DID YOU KNOW? Gun violence degrades the quality of life in the U. S.

• The U. S. consistently ranks lower than other developed countries in life expectancy a widely accepted measure of a societys quality of life. The disproportionate number of firearm deaths in the U. S. accounts for almost a third (27 percent) of this life expectancy gap (Lemaire, p. 365).
  

SOLUTION: We make it too easy for dangerous people to obtain dangerous weapons. There are only a few gun control laws on the books, and even those have loopholes. We should make it harder for convicted felons, the dangerously mentally ill, and youth to get the guns in the first place. We can do this by passing effective laws that make sense.

Sources

Cook, Philip J., Bruce A. Lawrence, Jens Ludwig, Ted R. Miller, The Medical Costs of Gunshot Injuries in the United States, JAMA (1999) 281 (5): 447-54

Cook, Philip J, and Jens Ludwig, Gun Violence: The Real Costs, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000 (based on gun deaths and injuries in 1997)

Dozier, Kristopher, et al, Insurance Coverage Is Associated with Mortality After Gunshot Trauma, J Am Coll Surg 210(3):280-285

Fowler, Patrick J., et al, Community Violence: A Meta-Analysis on the Effect of Exposure and Mental Health Outcomes of Children and Adolescents, Development and Psychopathology 21 (2009):227-259

Garbarino, James, Catherine P. Bradshaw, and Joseph A. Vorrasi, Mitigating the Effects of Gun Violence on Children and Youth, in The Future of Children: Children, Youth, and Gun Violence, available at: http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2826/information_show.htm?doc_id=154456

Lemaire, Jean, The Cost of Firearm Deaths in the United States: Reduced Life Expectancies and Increased Insurance Costs, The Journal of Risk and Insurance, (2005) 72 (3), 359-374; see also Richmond, Therese, Jean Lemaire, Years of Life Lost Because of Gunshot Injury to the Brain and Spinal Cord, American Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (2008) 87(8): 609-618

Slovak, Karen and Mark Singer, Gun Violence Exposure and Trauma Among Rural Youth, Violence and Victims, 16(4) (2001): 389-400