The shooting at Las Vegas on Sunday night, which saw 59 people killed and over 500 injured, was the latest in a series of mass attacks in the United States and has once again, reopened the debate on gun control.
Sunday's attack was the 273rd mass shooting in 275 days, according to Newsweek.
While the US remains one of the only countries in the world where the right to bear arms is constitutionally protected —along with Haiti, Mexico and Guatemala—data shows that it tops the charts on gun violence around the world.
Here are some numbers which explain how easy access to firearms may be responsible for making the United States— among developed nations— the most vulnerable to mass shootings.
Las Vegas Police at the scene of crime on Monday. AP
40 percent of households have guns
There are about 310 million guns in the United States of America, according to The Atlantic. About 40 percent of households have guns and although this figure is lower than what it was in earlier decades, it is higher than any other country.
Also, the US — which has only 4.4 percent of the world’s population — has almost half of the civilian-owned guns around the world.
US leads the chart of gun-related homicides
A chart compiled using United Nations data collected by The Guardian shows that US leads other developed countries when it comes to gun-related homicides by a huge margin, recording 16 times more cases than Germany and 6 times more than Canada. The US tops the charts with 29.7 firearm-related homicides per one million people.
More than one mass shooting a day
There have been more than 11,600 deaths linked to gun violence in 2017 so far, which is equivalent to nearly four 9/11 attacks in terms of the death toll, according to Newsweek. More than 15,000 people were killed by gun violence in 2016, and there were 383 mass shootings in that year.
The report says that the gun problem is so endemic that firearm violence is now the third leading cause of death for children in the US.
Over 1,500 mass shootings since late 2012
In December 2012, a gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown and killed 20 children, six adults, and himself. Since then, there have been at least 1,518 mass shootings, with at least 1,715 people killed and 6,089 wounded, according to Vox.
Guns used for assault rather than self defence
Data from an official survey suggests that a gun is used in self-defense about 60,000 to 120,000 times each year, an estimate confirmed by several other surveys, according to The Atlantic. By comparison, each year about a million violent crimes involve guns.
This means guns are used to commit a crime about 10 times as often as they are used for self defence.
Support for gun ownership has sharply increased since 1990s
As Vox points out, over the past 20 years, Americans have shifted from supporting gun control measures to greater support of "protecting the right of Americans to own guns," according to Pew Research Center. Overall, 52 percent of Americans say gun laws should be stricter than they are today, while nearly as 30 percent says they are about right or should be less strict than they are today (18 percent).
This shift has happened even amid increased media attention on gun control.
Published Date: Oct 03, 2017 01:09 pm | Updated Date: Oct 03, 2017 01:19 pm
