The raw data showed that one in three U.S. households had a firearm, and unadjusted results showed a strong relation between homes with a gun and rates of firearm homicide victimization for women, but not for men. When the data was adjusted for all the control variables, an extremely strong correlation was found between states with the highest levels of homes with firearms and the number of firearm-related homicides. Indeed, states in the top 25 percent of household firearm ownership had firearm-related homicide rates that were 114 percent greater than states that had household firearm ownership in the bottom 25 percent. Overall homicide rates were a full 60 percent higher in the same states.

Rates of homicide, suicide and household gun ownership in 14 countries.
=========================================================================
Rate per 100,000
_______________________________________
Homicide Suicide % of
with a with a households
Country Overall Gun Overall Gun with guns
_______________________________________________________________________
Australia 1.95 .66 11.58 3.42 1.96
Belgium 1.85 .87 23.15 2.45 1.66
Canada 2.60 .84 13.94 4.44 2.91
England/
Wales .67 .08 8.61 .38 .47
Finland 2.96 .74 25.35 5.43 2.32
France 1.25 .55 22.30 4.93 2.26
Holland 1.18 .27 11.72 .28 .19
N. Ireland 4.66 3.55 8.27 1.18 .84
Norway 1.21 .36 14.27 3.87 3.20
Scotland 1.63 .11 10.51 .69 .47
Spain 1.37 .38 6.45 .45 1.31
Switzerland 1.17 .46 24.45 5.74 2.72
USA 7.59 4.46 12.40 7.28 4.80
West Germany 1.21 .20 20.37 1.38 .89

* In one year, 31,224 people died from gun violence and 66,769 people survived gun injuries (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC)). That includes:

o 12,632 people murdered and 44,466 people shot in an attack.

o 17,352 people who killed themselves and 3,031 people who survived a suicide attempt with a gun.

o 613 people who were killed unintentionally and 18,610 who were shot unintentionally but survived.

o You can see tables on gun deaths here: 1) annual gun deaths and gun death rates by age and intent and by race/ethnicity, 2) ranked state gun death rates, and 3) trends in gun deaths and gun death rates by intent.

o Often, we recall the horrific mass shootings where an unstable or perturbed individual opens fire and kills or injures people using powerful semiautomatic weapons. We have kept track of these all-too-common incidents in an interactive map and chronological lists: mass shootings, school shootings, and assault weapon shootings.

* Over a million people have been killed with guns in the United States since 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated (Childrens’ Defense Fund, p. 20).

* U.S. homicide rates are 6.9 times higher than rates in 22 other populous high-income countries combined, despite similar non-lethal crime and violence rates. The firearm homicide rate in the U.S. is 19.5 times higher (Richardson, p.1).

* Among 23 populous, high-income countries, 80% of all firearm deaths occurred in the United States (Richardson, p. 1).

* Gun violence impacts society in countless ways: medical costs, costs of the criminal justice system, security precautions such as metal detectors, and reductions in quality of life because of fear of gun violence. These impacts are estimated to cost U.S. citizens $100 billion annually (Cook, 2000).

DID YOU KNOW? Where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths.

* An estimated 41% of gun-related homicides and 94% of gun-related suicides would not occur under the same circumstances had no guns been present (Wiebe, p. 780).

* Higher household gun ownership correlates with higher rates of homicides, suicides, and unintentional shootings (Harvard Injury Control Center).

* Keeping a firearm in the home increases the risk of suicide by a factor of 3 to 5 and increases the risk of suicide with a firearm by a factor of 17 (Kellermann, 1992, p. 467; Wiebe, p. 771).

* Keeping a firearm in the home increases the risk of homicide by a factor of 3 (Kellermann, 1993, p. 1084).

DID YOU KNOW? On the whole, guns are more likely to raise the risk of injury than to confer protection.

* A gun is 22 times more likely to be used in a completed or attempted suicide, criminal assault or homicide, or unintentional shooting death or injury than to be used in a self-defense shooting. (Kellermann, 1998, p. 263).

* Guns are used to intimidate and threaten 4 to 6 times more often than they are used to thwart crime (Hemenway, p. 269).

* Every year there are only about 200 legally justified self-defense homicides by private citizens (FBI, Expanded Homicide Data, Table 15) compared with over 30,000 gun deaths (NCIPC).

* A 2009 study found that people in possession of a gun are 4.5 times more likely to be shot in an assault (Branas).

DID YOU KNOW? Assaults and suicide attempts with firearms are much more likely to be fatal than those perpetrated with less lethal weapons or means. Removing guns saves lives.

* There are five times as many deaths from gun assaults as from knife assaults, where the rates of assault with knives and with guns are similar (Zimring, p. 199).

* More than 90 percent of suicide attempts with a gun are fatal (Miller, 2004, p. 626). In comparison, only 3 percent of attempts with drugs or cutting are fatal (Miller, 2004, p. 626).

DID YOU KNOW? Guns can be sold in the United States without a background check to screen out criminals or the mentally ill.

* It is estimated that over forty percent of gun acquisitions occur in the secondary market. That means that they happen without a Brady background check at a federally licensed dealer (Cook, p. 26).

* Sales from federal firearm licensees (FFLs) require a background check. Sales between individuals, under federal law, do not require a background check. This means that felons can “lie and buy” at gun shows and other places where guns are readily available.

the Brady Campaign exploited the incident to attack the right of Americans to own firearms

§ 311. Militia: composition and classes
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are—
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.