Oh, Jim, you're back for more fun!!!!
Obviously, I did not mean that I would feel less violated if my throat were cut with a straight razor. What I meant is that I have considerably less chance of being murdered with a straight razor than a gun, and I believe societies with very strong gun control are less violent.
Here are some interesting statistics. They are from 1993. Perhaps you can find some more recent ones!!!
Firearm-Related Violence
Facts in Brief
In The Nation
There were 39,595 firearm-related fatalities in the United States in 1993. Of these:
18,940 were suicides;
18,571 were homicides;
1,521 were unintentional shootings; and
563 were of unknown intent.1
Firearms are deadly. In 1995, 82% of homicides were committed with firearms. Nearly 56% of all firearm homicides
in 1995 were committed with a handgun.2
Of those murders for which the relationship between the victim and the offender were known, 75% involved people
known to each other.3
The growth in juvenile homicide victimizations from the mid-1980s through 1994 was completely firearm-related.
Juvenile homicides involving firearms nearly tripled from 1984 to 1994, while those not involving firearms remained
constant.4
About 99,000 nonfatal firearm injuries were treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments between June 1, 1992
and May 31, 1993, according to CDC estimates. For every firearm-related homicide, there were 3.3 nonfatal
firearm injuries, the CDC estimates.5 Others estimate that there may be as many as seven nonfatal injuries for every
firearm-related fatality.6
Suicide is nearly 5 times more likely to occur in a household with a gun than in a household without a gun.7 Suicide
accounted for over 26% of the firearm deaths in Californians ages 15-19 in 1993.8
In California
Firearms are the leading cause of death for young people ages 1-19 in California.9
Youth homicides rose 111% in California from 1985 to 1993, due entirely to a 204% increase in gunshot
homicides.10
Most murders are committed with a firearm, most often a handgun. Guns were used in 76% of all California
homicides in 1994, and two-thirds of those involved handguns.11
Firearms were used in 80% of all youth homicides in California in 1992.12
More Californians die from firearm injuries than from car crashes. In 1993, there were 5,500 firearm-related deaths
and 4,344 motor-vehicle-related deaths.13 California is now one of twelve states for which this is true.14
Small, cheap, junk guns (or "Saturday night specials") manufactured in California are disproportionately used in
crimes. Seven of the ten models of guns traced most frequently by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in
1994, were junk guns made in California.15
References
1. National Center for Health Statistics, Division of Vital Statistics.
2. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime in the United States 1995, Uniform Crime Reports. Washington, DC: Federal Bureau of
Investigation, 1995, p. 18.
3. ibid, p. 19.
4. Snyder, Howard N., Sickmund, Melissa, and Poe-Yamagata, Eileen. Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1996 Update on Violence.
Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, February, 1996.
5. Zawitz, Marianne W. Firearm Injury from Crime, Washington, D.C: Bureau of Justice Statistics, April, 1996 Doc. No. NCJ-160093,
p.2.
6. MacKenzie, Ellen J, Rice, Dorothy P and Associates, Cost of Injury in the United States: A Report to Congress. San Francisco,
CA: Institute for Health and Aging, University of California and Injury Prevention Center, The Johns Hopkins University, 1989.
7. Kellermann, A.L., et al. Suicide in the home in relation to gun ownership. N Engl J Med, 327 (7) Aug 12, 1992:467-472.
8. Fingerhut, L.A., et al. Injury Mortality Among Children and Teenagers in the United States, 1993. Injury Prev, 2 (2) 1996: 93-94.
9. State of California, Department of Health Services, Death Records, 1995.
10. Emergency Preparedness and Injury Control (EPIC) Branch. Violent Injuries to California Youth, Sacramento, CA: California
Department of Health Services, September 1996, Report No. 7 p. 8.
11. Attorney General. Homicide in California, 1994. Sacramento, CA: California Department of Justice, 1994 p. 18.
12. Emergency Preparedness and Injury Control (EPIC) Branch. Violent Injuries to California Youth, Sacramento, CA: California
Department of Health Services, September 1996 Report No. 7 p. 6.
13. National Center for Health Statistics, Division of Vital Statistics data, 1996.
14. Centers for Disease Control, Firearm and Motor Vehicle Injury Mortality -- Variations by State, Race, and Ethnicity: United
States, 1990-91, Advance Data 242:1 1994.
15. Zawitz, Marianne W. Guns Used in Crime. Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics, July, 1995, Doc. No. NCJ-14820. p, 5.
December 6, 1996
Pacific Center for Violence Prevention
Permission is granted to distribute this document in unaltered format. |
