Morbid (but interesting) discussion on the way home this evening about gun related deaths in the US. Here is the data I dug up:
The United States has the highest rate of gun related injuries (not deaths per capita) among developed countries.
In terms of their Firearm homicide rate (per 100,000 pop), only 8 nations — Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Zimbabwe, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belarus and Barbados — beat the United States, which registers 2.97 gun deaths per 100,000 pop.
Most other developed nations run a fraction of our gun death rate per capita.
Switzerland (0.56), Canada (0.54), Germany (0.47), Finland (0.43), Ireland (0.32), Denmark (0.26), England (0.12), Australia, Japan, Korea? WAY WAY BELOW US. Singapore at 0.02 and Hong Kong at 0.01 barely even register
Estimates of gun violence costs in the USA are as high as $100 billion per year (See Phillip J. Cook, Gun Violence: The Real Costs (Studies in Crime and Public Policy) Most of that cost is due to emergency medical care. (National estimates of nonfatal firearm-related injuries).
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See gunpolicy.org and nationmaster.com for data
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