Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
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Gun Violence Crime
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PROBLEM: Our weak gun laws make it too easy for dangerous people to gain access to guns.  When guns are used in crime, domestic assaults, and robberies, people are more likely to die than if another weapon is used.

DID YOU KNOW? In United States in one year, there are:

DID YOU KNOW? When a gun is used in an attack or a robbery, death is a more likely outcome than if another weapon is used.

  • Where the rates of assault with knives and with guns are similar, there are five times as many deaths from gun assaults as from knife assaults  (Zimring, p. 199).
  • Based on research on the robbery murder rates for forty-three cities, the use of a gun has a direct causal effect on the likelihood of the victim's death (Cook, p. 374).
  • When firearms are used in a family or intimate assault, death is 12 times more likely than if another weapon is used (Saltzman, p. 3043).

DID YOU KNOW? The U. S. has a higher homicide rate than comparable developed countries with strong gun laws.

  • In 2008, the U. S. homicide rate was 5.4 per 100,000 population (FBI, Table 1).  Sixty-seven percent of homicides were committed with guns (FBI, Table 8).
  • By comparison, in 2007, the homicide rate in Canada was 1.8 (Statistics Canada, Homicide Offences).  Canada has stronger gun laws than the U. S.  In Canada, 32 percent of homicides were committed with guns (Statistics Canada, Homicides by Method). 
  • A study of Seattle, WA and Vancouver, Canada found similar overall rates of criminal activity and assault, but the relative risk of death from homicide was 63 percent higher in Seattle.  All of the excess risk was explained by a 5-fold higher risk of being murdered with a handgun in Seattle (Sloan, p. 1256).

SOLUTION: Without stronger, sensible gun laws, thousands upon thousands of people will continue to die and be injured needlessly each year.  The Brady Campaign fights for sensible gun laws to protect you, your family, and your community.

Sources

Bureau of Justice Statistics, Criminal Victimization, 2008, Text Table 3, September 2009, NCJ 227777

Cook, Philip J., “Robbery Violence,” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 78(2) (Summer 1987): 357-376

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States, 2008, Tables 1, 7, 8, and 15

Hemenway, David and Azrael, Deborah, “The Relative Frequency of Offensive and Defensive Gun Uses: Results from a National Survey,” Violence and Victims 15(3) (2000): 257-272

Kellermann, Arthur L., "Injuries and Deaths Due to Firearms in the Home," Journal of Trauma 45:2 (1998):263-67

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (2006 (deaths) and 2008 (injuries), www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/.  Calculations by Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence

Saltzman LE, et al, “Weapon Involvement and Injury Outcomes in Family and Intimate Assaults,” Journal of the American Medical Association 267(22) (June 1992):3043-3047

Sloan JH, et al, “Handgun Regulations, Crime, Assaults, and Homicide. A Tale of Two Cities,” New England Journal of Medicine 319(19) (November 10, 1988):1256-62

Statistics Canada, Homicide Offences, Number and Rate, by Province and Territory

Statistics Canada, Homicides by Method

Zimring, Franklin, and Gordon Hawkins, Crime is not the Problem: Lethal Violence in America, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997
Studies and Reports