The number of gun deaths so far in the U.S. in 2021 is 12,515, according to the Gun Violence Archive 2021. We have averaged more than one mass shooting per day so far this year.
What does it take to get Americans to put a stop to the killing? More than a week ago, President Biden proclaimed that “gun violence in this country is an epidemic.” The ratio between numbers of guns in civilian hands and number of gun deaths is constant for all nations throughout the world—the more guns, the more deaths. Our neighbor Canada, for example, has a little fewer than 35 guns per 100 people and suffers fewer than two deaths per 100,000 people per year from gunfire. The U.K. has fewer than five guns per 100 people and has only .2 fatalities per 100,000 people a year from guns. The U.S., on the other hand, has the highest gun ownership in the world with 120.5 guns per 100 people—we have 20 percent more guns than people — and our annual gun death rate is 12.21 per 100,000 people.
As I have said repeatedly in this blog, the argument that the American culture is a gun culture is meaningless. Equally irrelevant is the defense that the right to gun ownership is guaranteed by the Constitution. Any belief or practice that costs us over twelve thousand lives in four months must change. And the only change that will reduce the number of gun deaths is reducing the number of guns. The statistics are overwhelming and beyond doubt.
So I urge any and all to push hard for legislation that will decrease the number of guns owned by civilians in the U.S. The time to stop the carnage is long since past.
Tom Glenn, Writer 