Gun violence
Gun violence
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Gun violence

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Gun violence

Gun-related violence is violence against a person committed with the use of a firearm to inflict a gunshot wound. Gun violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable) and assault with a deadly weapon. Depending on the jurisdiction, suicide or attempted suicide may also be considered a crime. Non-criminal violence includes accidental or unintentional injury and death (except in cases of criminal negligence). Also generally included in gun violence statistics are military or para-military activities.

According to GunPolicy.org, 75 percent of the world's 875 million guns are civilian controlled.[better source needed] Roughly half of these guns (48 percent) are in the United States, which has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world. Globally, millions are wounded or killed by the use of guns. Assault by firearm resulted in 180,000 deaths in 2013, up from 128,000 deaths in 1990. There were additionally 47,000 unintentional firearm-related deaths in 2013.

Levels of gun-related violence vary greatly among geographical regions, countries, and even sub-nationally. Rates of violent deaths by firearm range from as low as 0.03 and 0.04 per 100,000 population in Singapore and Japan, to 59 and 67 per 100,000 in Honduras and Venezuela. The highest rates of violent deaths by firearm in the world occur in low-income South and Central American countries such as Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil and Jamaica.

The United States has the 11th highest rate of gun violence in the world and a gun homicide rate which is 25 times higher than the average respective rates of other high income nations. The United States has a total rate of firearms death which is many times higher than that of similarly developed nations with strict gun control laws, such as Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Korea. Nearly all studies have found a positive correlation between gun ownership and gun-related homicide and suicide rates.

According to the United Nations, small arms account for roughly half of the weapons used to kill people, and more people die each year from gun-related violence than did in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The global death toll from use of guns may be as high as 1,000 dead each day.

A number of ideas have been proposed on how to lessen the incidence of gun-related violence.

Some propose keeping a gun at home to keep one safer. Studies show that guns in the home is associated with an increased risk of violent death in the home. According to the Huffington Post, FBI data shows that gun-related violence is linked to gun ownership and is not a function or byproduct of crime. They stated that the FBI data indicates that less than 10% of gun fatalities would be eliminated if they stopped of all violent crime, and therefore gun violence is caused by too many guns. Mother Jones reports that "[a] Philadelphia study found that the odds of an assault victim being shot were 4.5 times greater if he carried a gun" and that "[h]is odds of being killed were 4.2 times greater" when armed.

Others propose arming civilians to counter mass shootings. FBI research shows that between 2000 and 2013, "In 5 incidents (3.1%), the shooting ended after armed individuals who were not law enforcement personnel exchanged gunfire with the shooters." Another proposal is to expand self defense laws for cases where a person is being aggressed upon, although "those policies have been linked to a 7 to 10% increase in homicides" (that is, shootings where self-defense cannot be claimed). While the CDC has been studying on possible methods of preventing gun violence, they have not come to many conclusions on good gun violence prevention.

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