Gun Facts and Figures

Found this list of gun facts with references on Gun Watch and thought them worthy of reprinting.  Since the author gave permission to reprint, here they are.

My comments on some of the entries are listed underneath in italics.

 Total private guns in the United States:  390 million

Murder rate in the U.S. in 1993:    9.5 per 100,000     FBI
Murder rate in the U.S. in 2015:    4.5 per 100,000     
FBI 

Murder rate in Brazil (latest):     25.2 per 100,000    Wikipedia
Murder rate in Mexico 2012:     21.5 per 100,000    
Wikipedia

(Note:  The murder rate is not “sky-rocketing” as Liberals would have you believe; it has actually been cut in half since 1993.  Brazil and Mexico have some of the strictest Gun Control laws in the world, yet their murder rate is five times that of the United States.)

Number of people with Concealed Carry permits in the United States: 12.8 million  CrimeResearch.org study

Number of States where no permit is required to carry concealed or openly:  10  
CrimeResearch.org study

Number of states who issue Concealed Carry permits – 49

Number of states where open carry of firearms is legal: 45   Opencarry.org map

Number of NICS background checks in 2015:    22.6 million  (pdf) FBI

(Note:  This number implies that 22.6 million more firearms entered into civilian hands in 2015.  In actuality, the number is probably a lot higher.  22.6 million people “attempted” to buy a firearm in 2015.  While not all may have been approved, this number does not include any of the 28.4 million people with Concealed Carry Permits who bought a gun in 2015.  They do not require a background check when buying a gun because they underwent a more thorough background check when they got their permit.  Also, in most States, a person can buy more than one gun at a time, but will only incur one background check. Regardless, a lot more guns are in civilian hands than a year ago, yet violent crime rates have dropped.)

  Number of times guns used to stop crime or for self-defense: 1.5 million  CDC(pdf)

Suicide rate in the United States:    12.1 per 100,000       suicide.org
Suicide rate in France:                       12.3 per 100,000
Suicide rate in Japan:                         18.5 per 100,000
Suicide rate in South Korea:             28.9 per 100,000 

U.S. Fatal Firearm Accident rate in 1932:     2.5 per 100,000
U.S. Fatal Firearm Accident rate in 2015:     0.2 per 100,000      
 Gun Watch

Michael Bloomberg Dollars devoted to restricting the Second Amendment:  $50 million  Forbes 

Percent who believe concealed carry of guns makes people safer:  53%   Gallup
Percent who think concealed carry makes people less safe: 41%  
Gallup

Number of guns stolen or lost per year:   200,000  governing.com

Murders committed with handguns:                                6,115                                            Murders committed with (hands, fists, feet ,etc.):      769                                 Murders committed with blunt objects:                          549                                             Murders committed with rifles:                                          367                                             Murders committed with shotguns:                                  366

©2015 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
Link to Gun Watch

Posted by Dean Weingarten at 12/28/2015 02:32:00 AM No comments: Links to this post

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