As of today there have been 17,673 gun deaths in the US this year.
That’s and average of 118 a day, or 826 per week, since today is the 149th day of the year.
UPDATE: In less than 24 hours since I first published this diary another 110 Americans have died from gun violence. That is the equivalent of annual gun deaths in the UK. Roughly a gun death every 12 minutes. In the time it takes Ted “Moloch” Cruz to lie, deflect, and flee in panic from a constituent or reporter another American has died from the gun violence he and other Republicans have created.
In 2019 Australia had 228 gun deaths for the entire year. In the US that same number takes about 2 days.
In 2016 the UK had 107 gun deaths for the entire year. In the US that would be a fortunately slow day.
In 2018 Canada had 695 gun deaths for the entire year. It takes 6 days for the US to equal that number.
In rough numbers the US has about 10 times the population of Australia or Canada, and 5 times the population of the UK. Even adjusted for population the rate of gun violence in the US is extreme compared to three countries with a similar level of development and a shared history.
What is different in the US that makes us so much more likely to suffer from gun violence? Extremely lax gun laws that provide easy access to firearms. Canada has reasonable gun laws and many elements of shared culture and values with the US, and their rate of gun violence is far lower. Australia and the UK have stricter gun laws and their rate of gun deaths are even lower.
I’m frustrated at the lack of response to gun violence at all levels of government. The NRA advocates against reasonable gun restrictions, and the rate of gun violence in the US far exceeds comparable nations. Looking at two of the worst terrorist attacks on US soil, it takes less than two days to equal the number of dead from the Oklahoma City terrorist attack, and a little of 3 weeks to equal those killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack. That makes NRA advocated gun availability responsible for many times the deaths each year as the worst terrorists.
Gun deaths by suicide are included in the numbers above, as gun deaths by suicide exceed gun deaths by murder in the US. As I continue to follow this issue I’ll work on finding statistics about survival rates of various methods of suicide attempt. As I understand it suicide lethality is considerably higher with guns because of gun lethality compared to other methods. If anyone has stats on gun suicide lethality please include it in the comments. My understanding of the issue is that easy access to guns increases suicide attempt lethality, so I’ve included suicide in the numbers above.
This diary is very much a quick one, puling data from places such as the Gun Violence Archive. It was inspired by comments in Vetwife’s current diary, and the need for people of good conscience to mobilize to defeat the gun nuts. We outnumber them considerably, but the NRA gun nuts are very well organized, punching well above their weight. Every time gun violence hits the news the guns nuts are calling media outlets and legislators at all levels, spewing NRA lies. If we are going to see reasonable gun legislation we must be doing the same thing, especially with media. Contact the media you listen to via email, social media, phone, whatever method works for you. Tell them you are not happy with their coverage of gun violence and demand they cover US gun deaths at least once a week if not every day. When media repeat NRA lies call them out and hold them to task for the poor journalism of repeating lies out of context. We have to out shout the NRA, because believe me they are shouting loudly. Evidence is against the NRA, but because they yell loudly they get heard.
Some reading this will think it is difficult or impossible. IT IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE. It is, though, time to renew the American spirit, the best of the energy of the US, to take on difficult problems and resolve them. The NRA takes on the difficult problem of enacting laws that directly contradict the opinion of the general population of the US, and they do it through organizing more than funding. We can shut them down by being more organized and more determined to save lives through reasonable gun laws.