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Gun violence

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Gun violence defined literally means the use of a firearm to threaten or inflict violence or harm. The term 'gun violence' is also used politically within context of the debate surrounding gun politics to describe the harm inflicted by gun misuse. Gun violence may be broadly defined as a category of violence and crime committed with the use of a firearm; it may[1] or may not[2][3] include actions ruled as self-defense, actions for law enforcement, or the safe lawful use of firearms for sport, hunting, and target practice. Gun violence encompasses intentional crime characterized as homicide (although not all homicide is automatically a crime) and assault with a deadly weapon, as well as unintentional injury and death resulting from the misuse of firearms, particularly by children and adolescents.[4] Further confusion is often caused by the willful inclusion of data involving intentionally self-inflicted gunshot wounds (both suicide and attempted suicide) in the overall statistics on gun "violence". [5]

The phrase "gun violence" has been criticized as conveying policy bias, as it de-emphasizes the role of the criminal in violent attack, and instead emphasizes his chosen tool; it is not clear, by analogy, that the discussion of vehicular homicide would be advanced by the term, "automobile violence." By contrast, the phrase "gun crime" is consistently used by both gun-control and gun-rights policy advocates, though with differing emphases: the former group stresses goal to reduce gun violence through enacting and enforcing sensible regulations, while the latter group champions the need to remove criminals via increased prison terms or other methods.[6][7]

Levels of gun violence vary greatly across the world, with very high rates in South Africa and Colombia, as well as high levels in Thailand, Guatemala, and some other developing countries.[8] Levels of gun violence are low in Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, and many other countries.[8] The United States has the highest rates among developed countries, which some attribute to the less-restrictive firearm laws in the U.S. compared to other developed countries.[9]

Suicide

Main article: Suicide methods

Some research shows an association between household firearm ownership and gun suicide rates,[10][11] while other research found a statistical association among a group of 14 developed nations but that statistical association was lost when additional countries were included.[12] During the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a strong upward trend in adolescent suicides with a gun,[13] as well as a sharp overall increase in a suicides among those age 75 and over.[14] In the United States, firearms remain the most common method of suicide, accounting for 52.1% of all suicides committed during 2005.[15] Unlike in the U.S., suicide rates of suicides committed with guns in countries where firearms are uncommon are similarly uncommon, with other methods typically being used to commit suicides.

Research also indicates no association vis-à-vis safe-storage laws of guns that are owned, and gun suicide rates, and studies that attempt to link gun ownership to likely victimology often fail to account for the presence of guns owned by other people leading to a conclusion that safe-storage laws do not appear to affect gun suicide rates or juvenile accidental gun death.[16][17]

Homicides by country

The homicide statistics listed below are for "intentional homicide", which is "death deliberately inflicted on a person by another person",[18] including justifiable homicide and criminal homicide.

Caution is advised in reading the table. The statistics cannot take into account the differences that exist between the legal definitions of offences in various countries, of the different methods of tallying, etc. Consequently, the figures used in these statistics must be interpreted with great caution. In particular, to use the figures as a basis for comparison between different countries is highly problematic.[19]

However, statistics looking at gun violence will often combine homicide, suicide, and gun accident data. For example, the CDC includes homicide, suicide, and "legal intervention" in its "Violence-related" data;[20] other sources for statistics are often less transparent about their raw data.[21][22]

Homicide rates within a country often vary greatly across the country. Within the United States, homicide rates vary widely, and the relation to gun ownership is not simple. For example, "20 percent of U.S. homicides occur in four cities with just 6% of the population – New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., and each has a virtual prohibition on private handguns"[23] Detroit has 47.3 murders per every 100,000 residents.[24] In contrast to these areas, some areas have widespread gun ownership with low rates of homicide. In 2005, Wyoming had the highest number of homes with loaded and unlocked guns, at 33% of all homes in the state, of any state in the United States[25] and had a homicide rate of 1.7 of every 100,000.[26]

Likewise, caution is advised in comparing data from different years among different countries. As noted by Joyce Lee Malcolm:

“Cultural differences and more-permissive legal standards notwithstanding, the English rate of violent crime has been soaring since 1991. Over the same period, America's has been falling dramatically. In 1999 The Boston Globe reported that the American murder rate, which had fluctuated by about 20 percent between 1974 and 1991, was "in startling free-fall." We have had nine consecutive years of sharply declining violent crime. As a result the English and American murder rates are converging. In 1981 the American rate was 8.7 times the English rate, in 1995 it was 5.7 times the English rate, and the latest study puts it at 3.5 times.”[27]

Intentional Homicides (non-firearm and firearm homicides) by country
Source: United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2000[8]

"The statistics cannot take into account the differences that exist between the legal definitions of offences in various countries, of the different methods of tallying, etc.Consequently, the figures used in these statistics must be interpreted with great caution. In particular, to use the figures as a basis for comparison between different countries is highly problematic."[28]
Country % homicides with firearms Firearm homicide rate
per 100,000 pop. 		Non-firearm homicide rate
per 100,000 pop. 		Overall homicide rate
per 100,000 pop.
Australia 16 0.31 1.26 1.57
Azerbaijan 8 0.22 2.59 2.81
Barbados 40 3.00 4.49 7.49
Belarus 33 3.31 6.82 10.13
Bulgaria 19 0.77 3.3 4.07
Canada[29] 34 0.54 1.04 1.58
Chile 11 0.18 1.37 1.55
Colombia 85 51.8 10.9 62.7
Costa Rica[29] 51 3.38 3.19 6.57
Denmark 24 0.26 0.83 1.09
England & Wales[29] 8 0.12 1.33 1.45
Estonia 13 1.53 8.92 10.45
Finland[30] 19 0.43 1.94 2.19
Germany 40 0.47 0.70 1.17
Guatemala 75 6.97 25.5 25.47
Hungary 21 0.44 1.61 2.05
India[29] 25 2.79 3.72 3.72
Ireland[29] 24 0.32 1.01 1.33
Latvia 11 1.3 10 11.3
Lithuania 18 2.24 10 12.3
Macedonia FYR 36 1.28 2.31 3.59
Mexico 21 3.7 14.1 17.8
Moldova, Republic of 5 0.47 8.13 8.59
New Zealand 13 0.18 1.17 1.36
Paraguay 38 7.4 12 19.4
Poland 7 0.43 5.61 6.04
Portugal 25 0.85 2.45 3.31
Qatar[29] 25 0.18 0.53 0.71
Singapore 3 0.03 0.92 0.95
Slovakia 45 2.17 2.65 4.81
Slovenia 25 0.6 1.81 2.41
Spain 16 0.25 1.25 1.5
Switzerland 37 0.56 0.96 1.52
Ukraine 4 0.35 8.93 9.27
United States[29] 65 2.97 1.58 4.55
Uruguay 35 2.52 4.61 7.13
Zimbabwe 40 4.75 7.24 12

See also

References

  1. ^ Carter, Gregg Lee (2002). Guns in American society: an encyclopedia of history, politics, culture, and the law. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. p. 262. ISBN 1-57607-268-1.
  2. ^ Theodore, Larissa (2008-03-29). "GUNS: A RIGHT OR A SOCIETAL ILL?". Beaver County Times and Allegheny Times. Gun violence by definition is people breaking the law, and drugs are a huge part of it in inner cities...It's not the gun that is causing them to commit the act.
  3. ^ Courtesy link to archive.org copy of Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence: Statistics
  4. ^ Encyclopedia of Public Health: Gun Control
  5. ^ Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence: Kids and Gun Violence
  6. ^ "About us," Brady Center to Prevent Violence, undated
  7. ^ "Targeting Criminals, not Gun Owners," NRA-ILA; 8/17/06
  8. ^ a b c "The Seventh United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (1998 - 2000)" (PDF). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Retrieved 2006-11-08.
  9. ^ Cook, Philip J., Gun Violence: The Real Cost, Page 29. Oxford University Press, 2002
  10. ^ Committee on Law and Justice (2004). "Executive Summary". Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. National Academy of Science.
  11. ^ Kellermann, A.L., F.P. Rivara, G. Somes; et al. (1992). "Suicide in the home in relation to gun ownership". New England Journal of Medicine. 327: pp. 467–472. PMID 1308093. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ Miller, Matthew and Hemenway, David (2001). Firearm Prevalence and the Risk of Suicide: A Review. Harvard Health Policy Review. p. 2. One study found a statistically significant relationship between gun ownership levels and suicide rate across 14 developed nations (e.g. where survey data on gun ownership levels were available), but the association lost its statistical significance when additional countries were included. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ Cook, Philip J., Jens Ludwig (2000). "Chapter 2". Gun Violence: The Real Costs. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513793-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ Ikeda, Robin M., Rachel Gorwitz, Stephen P. James, Kenneth E. Powell, James A. Mercy (1997). Fatal Firearm Injuries in the United States, 1962-1994: Violence Surveillance Summary Series, No. 3. National Center for Injury and Prevention Control.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ "Suicide in the U.S.A." (PDF). American Association of Suicidology.
  16. ^ Kleck, Gary (2004). "Measures of Gun Ownership Levels of Macro-Level Crime and Violence Research" (PDF). Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. 41: pp. 3–36. doi:10.1177/0022427803256229. NCJ 203876. Studies that attempt to link the gun ownership of individuals to their experiences as victims (e.g., Kellermann, et al. 1993) do not effectively determine how an individual's risk of victimization is affected by gun ownership by other people, especially those not living in the gun owner's own household. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  17. ^ Lott, John, John E. Whitley (2001). "Safe-Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicides, and Crime" (PDF). Journal of Law and Economics. 44(2): pp. 659–689. doi:10.1086/338346. It is frequently assumed that safe-storage laws reduce accidental gun deaths and total suicides. We find no support that safe-storage laws reduce either juvenile accidental gun deaths or suicides. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ "Questionnaire for the Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, covering the period 1998 - 2000" (PDF). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). {{cite web}}: line feed character in |title= at position 22 (help)
  19. ^ http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/Seventh-United-Nations-Survey-on-Crime-Trends-and-the-Operations-of-Criminal-Justice-Systems.html warning in source re comparison
  20. ^ WISQARS Injury Mortality Reports, 1999 - 2005, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  21. ^ [http://www.reason.com/news/show/30225.html Henry E. Schaffer, Don Kates and William B. Waters IV: Public Health Pot Shots-- How the CDC succumbed to the Gun "Epidemic." Reason Magazine]
  22. ^ Pro-Gun Groups & Anti-Gun Groups--Does Anti-Gun Researcher David Hemenway Have Something To Hide? NRA-ILA, 3/24/06
  23. ^ Reynolds, Morgan O. and Caruth, III, W.W. (1992). NCPA Policy Report No. 176: Myths About Gun Control. National Center for Policy Analysis. p. 7. ISBN 0-943802-99-7. 20 percent of U.S. homicides occur in four cities with just 6% of the population – New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, D.C., and each has a virtual prohibition on private handguns{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ^ America's Most Murderous Cities. by David M. Ewalt, Forbes, 11.08.07.
  25. ^ D.C. Ranks Well in New Gun Report, WTOP.COM , September 6, 2005.
  26. ^ Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2009, Table 297.
  27. ^ Joyce Lee Malcolm (November 2002). "Gun Control's Twisted Outcome". reasononline. Retrieved 2009-03-11. The murder rates of the U.S. and U.K. are also affected by differences in the way each counts homicides. The FBI asks police to list every homicide as murder, even if the case isn't subsequently prosecuted or proceeds on a lesser charge, making the U.S. numbers as high as possible. By contrast, the English police "massage down" the homicide statistics, tracking each case through the courts and removing it if it is reduced to a lesser charge or determined to be an accident or self-defense, making the English numbers as low as possible.
  28. ^ "The Seventh United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (1998 - 2000)". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Retrieved 2008-06-19.
  29. ^ a b c d e f g 1999 figures; 2000 figures not available
  30. ^ 1998 figures; 1999 and 2000 figures not available
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