GUN CONTROL
Gun control is the regulaton of the guns in the United states. It is more strict upon the rigts of gun ownership and such. Many people across the USA would like to ban personal arms completely.
Some Gun Control Issues
School Shootings:
A recent spate of deadly school shootings — including the April 1999 massacre of 14 students and a teacher at a suburban Colorado high school — have added momentum to gun control measures long pending before Congress. (Gun Control vs. Gun Rights)
"What we have already begun to hear (yet again) is that the presence of guns is the problem. Without guns, he couldn't shoot anyone, right?
"... What I'm trying to say is that our society's problem with violence, be it in school or out, is not gun-related in the least. It is a problem of culture, of conditioning and education (or the lack thereof)."
(Chastain)
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Gun Related Deaths:
GUN RELATED ACCIDENTS:
About .5 people per 100,000 population (1400 total) die from accidental gunshot wounds and about 33 per 100,000 (100,000 total) are injured accidentally with gunshots (per CDC) per year recently. The rate has been dropping steadily for years.
Some of the accidents are results of hunting accidents. Some are associated with mistakenly thinking a gun was unloaded. Some involve idiotic behaviour like "horseplay." Some involve unsupervised children. Virtually all of them involve inattention to a few basic safety rules.
(GUN ACCIDENTS)
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GUN RELATED SUICIDE:
Gun suicides outnumber gun homicides. In 1999, there were 16,599 gun suicides compared to 10,828 firearm homicides (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control). Guns were the most common method of suicide (57% in 1999).
If we could magically make all guns disappear, would the number of suicides decrease? Probably not...
From 1972 to 1995 the per capita gun stock in the U. S. increased by more than 50%. Gary Kleck in Targeting Guns (p 265) comments on this huge increase: "This change might be viewed as a sort of inadvertent natural experiment, in which Americans launched a massive and unprecedented civilian armaments program, probably the largest in world history. During this same period, the U.S. suicide rate was virtually constant, fluctuating only slightly within the narrow range from 11.8 to 13.0 suicides per 100,000 population...At most...this huge increase in the gun stock might have caused a mild increase in the percentage of suicides committed with guns, which shifted from 53.3 in 1972 to 60.3 in 1994, and thus a mild corresponding increase in the gun suicide rate."
In 1972 the suicide rate was 11.9 per 100,000. After this "arms build-up" the total suicide rate remained unchanged at 11.9 in 1995. (GunCite)
