• jordanlund@lemmy.worldM
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    12
    ·
    7 months ago

    Not really, because the vast, vast, number of gun owners don’t use them.

    Let me give you some perspective…

    We don’t REALLY know, but the best estimate is there are around 474 MILLION guns in the United States.

    https://www.thetrace.org/2023/03/guns-america-data-atf-total/

    In 2021, 48,830 people died from gun injuries.

    https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/26/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/

    54% of those were suicides. So 22,462 murders or accidents.

    Gun laws are never going to prevent suicides, only national mental health care can do that. So looking at the murders and accidents:

    22,462 / 474,000,000? 0.0000473878

    That’s not a crisis, it’s a rounding error. And, yes, each one of those 22,000 deaths individually is a tragedy, but that also means 473,978,000 guns sat around collecting dust.

    • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      7 months ago

      but that also means 473,978,000 guns sat around collecting dust.

      Nah, many were used for hunting, self defense that didn’t lead to a death, sport shooting, target practice… Etc… Likely orders of magnitude higher than the amount used to commit murders.

    • Nudding@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      7 months ago

      In 2021, 48,830 people died from gun injuries.

      Jesus christ… Let’s compare to other developed nations, wanna do per capita or total?