Gun Violence Statistics and Studies

FIREARM FACTS

Guns in the United States - Easy Access to Deadly Weapons

• Currently, an estimated 34.5% of households have a gun ¹, while 24% have a handgun.²
  
  
• As of 2004, there were approximately 283 million privately owned firearms in the U.S -- 40 percent of them handguns.³
  
  
• In 1998 alone, licensed firearms dealers sold an estimated 4.4 million guns, 1.7 million of which were handguns.⁴ Additionally, it is estimated that 1 to 3 million guns change hands in the secondary market each year, and many of these sales are not regulated.⁵
  
  

Gun Deaths and Injury - The United States Leads the World in Firearm Violence

• In 2006, 30,896 people in the United States died from firearm-related deaths – 12,791 were murdered; 16,883 killed themselves; 642 were accidents; 360 died by police intervention, and in 220, the intent was unknown. ⁶ In comparison, 33,651 Americans were killed in the Korean War and 58,193 Americans were killed in the Vietnam War.⁷
  
  
• An additional 69,863 people were shot and survived their injuries -- 48,676 people injured in an attack; 4,291 people injured in a suicide attempt; 15,698 people shot accidentally, and 1,198 people shot in a police intervention.⁸
  
  
• In 2004, firearms were used to murder 56 people in Australia, 184 people in Canada, 73 people in England and Wales, 5 people in New Zealand, and 37 people in Sweden.⁹ In comparison, firearms were used to murder 11,344 in the United States.¹⁰
  
  
• In 2007, there were 198 justifiable homicides by private citizens using firearms in the United States.¹¹
  
  

Gun Violence - Young Lives Cut Short

• In 2006, nearly 9 children and teenagers, ages 19 and under, were killed with guns everyday.¹²
  
  
• In 2006, firearm homicide was the second leading cause of injury death for men and women 10-24 years of age - second only to motor vehicle crashes.¹³
  
  
• From 1999 through 2006, an average of over 1,000 children and teenagers took their own lives with guns each year.¹⁵
  
  

Guns in the Home - A Greater Risk to Family and Friends

• For every time a gun is used in a home in a legally-justifiable shooting [note that not every self-defense is legally justifiable] there are 22 criminal, unintentional, and suicide-related shootings.¹⁶
  
  
• The presence of a gun in the home triples the risk of homicide in the home.¹⁷
  
  
• The presence of a gun in the home increases the risk of suicide fivefold.¹⁸
  
  

The Economic Costs of Gun Violence - All Americans Pay a High Price

• Reducing gun murders and assaults by 10 percent would free up enough health care money to cover medical check-ups for every child in the state of Iowa.¹⁹
  
  
• Fifty-five percent of lifetime medical costs for gun assaults are paid with taxpayer money.  Twenty percent are paid by private insurance and 20 percent, out-of-pocket.²⁰
  
  
• The lifetime medical treatment cost of gun assaults and homicides is $1.4 billion dollars — more than the entire budget of the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development.²¹

April 2009

Endnotes:

1.    National Opinion Research Center, The University of Chicago, Public Attitudes towards the Regulation of Firearms, 1, March 2007 (hereafter Public Attitudes).
2.    Public Attitudes, Figure 2; Violence Policy Center, A Shrinking Minority: The Continuing Decline of Gun Ownership in America, 2, April 2007 (citing Public Attitudes, additional data from NORC).
3.   L Hepburn, M Miller, D Hemenway, “The U. S. Gun Stock: Results from the 2004 National Firearms Survey,” Injury Prevention 13 (2007): 15-19 .
4.    Cook PJ, Ludwig J. Guns in America: Results of a comprehensive national survey on firearms ownership and use. Police Foundation. Washington DC. 1996.
5.    US Department of the Treasury. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Commerce in Firearms in the United States, February 2000.
http://www.atf.gov/pub/fire-explo_pub/020400report.pdf
6.    WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control, 2006 data, http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html (hereafter Injury Mortality Reports).
7.    Combat Area Casualty Figures. Center for Electronic Records. National Archives.
8.    WISQARS, Nonfatal Injury Reports, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control, 2007 data,  http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html.
9.    Crime in England and Wales 2004/2005, Canadian Crime Statistics, Australian Crime – Facts & Figures 2004, The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention – Criminal Statistics 2004, Statistics New Zealand.
10.    WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports.
11.    FBI Uniform Crime Report, 2007, Expanded Homicide Table 14, http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/expanded_information/murder_homicide.html.
12.    WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports, 2006.
13.    WISQARS, Leading Causes of Death Reports, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control, 2006 data, http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus10.html.
14.    Ibid.
15.    WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports, 2006.
16.    Kellermann AL, Somes G, Rivara FP, et al. "Injuries and deaths due to firearms in the home." The Journal of Trauma. 1998;45:263-267.
17.    Kellermann, AL, Rivara, FP, Rushforth NB, et al. "Gun ownership as a risk factor for homicide in the home." N Engl J Med. 1993;329:1084-1091.
18.    Kellermann, AL Rivara FP, Somes G, et al. "Suicide in the home in relation to gun ownership." N Engl J Med. 1992;327:467-472.
19.    Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 2008 based on data from Cook and Ludwig, 2000, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Calculations available upon request.
20.    Cook, Philip J., Lawrence, Bruce A., Ludwig, Jens, Miller, Ted R. ”The Medical Costs of Gunshot Injuries in the United States,” JAMA, (1999) 281 (5): 452

21.  Cook, Philip J, and Ludwig, Jens, Gun Violence: The Real Costs, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000

Department of Health and Human Services, 2009 Budget in Brief, http://www.hhs.gov/budget/docbudget.htm