US World Gun Comparison

The US has more deaths by firearms than any other country, a startling set of statistics considering the countries many Americans would consider backwards or uncivilized. 

The good news is that the deaths are highly correlated to the number of guns ; which means by leveraging the likely cause the US can reduce the number of deaths. There are more guns than people in the US (~120 guns per 100 people). The argument that guns are defensive is countered by the data that;

“high gun ownership rates do not reduce gun deaths, but rather tend to coincide with increases in gun deaths“

Surprisingly, the very visible massive shootings which are not the greatest threat. Suicides are more common. 

“less than 2 percent of the nearly 39,000 gun deaths that year — most of which were suicides, not homicides“

Crime is not as great a factor, but crimes involving guns are more likely to be lethal.

“the US is not an outlier when it comes to overall crime“

While some assume the problem is the mentally ill, only 22% were mentally ill.

The bad news is that the US situation is unlikely to change through federal legislation because those lobbying for guns are more effective than those lobbying against guns. Local gun legislation may be more effective than the highly-lobbying federal legislation as some communities are already working on solutions to reduce gun deaths of all types.