When Senate Republicans voted down a measure to require criminal background checks on all guns sales earlier this week, the votes sparked outrage and incomprehension. Instead, each story was one of restraint: they felt threatened, they displayed a gun, and their potential attacker ran away.īut breaking the stalemate of the gun debate also requires acknowledging how wide a political gap there is between general public opinion in America and the small, fiercely committed membership of the NRA – and how different those world views can be. When I asked NRA members if they’ve ever had to use their gun to defend themselves, I heard no stories of dramatic shootouts or heroic interventions. In between the dire political speeches about the power elites and felons getting their voting rights back and how Hillary Clinton will destroy the second amendment, there are sessions on the history of the second world war and how to train your puppy. If you come to the NRA annual meeting expecting danger and risk and the thrill of the forbidden, you will be disappointed. The percentage of Americans who had an accurate understanding of this most basic gun violence trend: 12%. The country’s gun murder rate was down 49% since its peak in 1993. Even as the total number of guns in the civilian hands crept upwards, gun violence dropped sharply as the crack epidemic receded, for reasons that are still not fully understood. The reality was that America had become much safer over the previous 20 years. The majority of Americans, 56%, said they believed gun crime was higher than 20 years before. A Pew survey after the Newtown shootings asked Americans if gun crime in the country had gone up or down over the last 20 years. Gun advocates also have a point when they argue that the general public does not have a very accurate sense of overall gun violence trends. The constant coverage of America’s most shocking acts of violence may make it seem like this gun-filled country is the wild west. There are millions of gun-owning Americans who use their guns safely, whose friends use their guns safely, whose children never access a gun when they are not supposed to. If you want to understand why gun rights advocates might not support new laws, or why the status quo might seem acceptable to some Americans, this is an essential bigger picture to grasp. “The large majority of gun owners aren’t going to do anything good or bad for public health with their guns this year,” he said. Most gun owners are not committing crimes.Įven David Hemenway, a leading public health researcher who is skeptical of how many good things are done with guns, concedes this point. As incomplete and imprecise as much gun data is, the bigger picture is clear: most guns are not being used in crimes. Set 30,000 gun deaths, or even 500,000 gun victimizations, against 300 million. But there are roughly 300 million guns in civilian hands. The number of self-defensive gun uses each year is fiercely debated, and the estimates vary widely. Look at justice department survey data on broader gun use in crime, including incidents where offenders simply have or display a firearm, and the count of firearm crime is even higher: close to 500,000 total firearm victimizations a year.īut these numbers have to be put in context. Add in people violently injured with guns, and the total is nearly 100,000. Each year, more than 30,000 Americans are killed with guns. This week, the Guardian is exploring the terrible toll of gun violence in the US, and why the gun debate has become a vicious cycle of debate and inaction. “I think a lot of gun owners feel demonized.”
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