December 2022: Guns killed 100 Americans in the last 72 hrs. You read correctly. In the last the 3 days, 100 Americans have died by gun violence in the U.S., according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Several significant pieces of gun control legislation have failed in the U.S. Congress over the last few years. For instance, the Sabika Sheikh Firearm Licensing and Registration Act would prohibit the possession of certain ammunition and large capacity ammunition feeding devices. This brings the question back to: is the U.S. really a safe country? In May 2022, Health Data published an article showing the U.S. to be an outlier on gun violence. Nevada, Florida and Texas were just some of the states that had the worst mass shootings since 1991.
Recently, a woman was murdered by a violent partner with a gun, which Twitter user Rudy Owens says has been a consistent outcome of misogynistic violence exacerbated by lax gun laws and their unregulated sale. Cindy Laughlin stated on Twitter, “Another senseless tragedy. A deadly shooting at America’s largest mall right before Christmas. When will this stop?” Earlier this month, four people were found shot and killed at a home near Valley Station, according to WDRB.COM. In December, approximately over 844 people have lost their lives to gun violence. That is approximately 18 Americans dead per day.
December 2022: Guns Killed 100 Americans in the Last 72 hrs. What Does Science Say?
According to a paper published in Science Advances, gun violence is a leading cause of premature death and a driver of racial disparities in life expectancy in the U.S. Unarmed Black civilians are five times more likely to be shot and killed by police than unarmed white civilians.
What is more, 41,000 Americans die from gun violence every year—an average of more than 110 per day, based on data collected by Cliffords Law Center. Furthermore, Americans are 25 times more likely to be killed in a gun homicide than people in other high-income countries. While U.S. accounts for just 4% of the world’s population, it has 35% of global firearm suicides.
America has the weakest gun laws and the most guns—393 million—of any comparable nation.
