Using the Global Terrorism Database from 2002-2015 they found that, compared to Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, The US has a considerably higher percentage of terrorist attacks that used firearms and firearm related terrorist attacks were more deadly than any other method, including bombs. Of the 2817 attacks in that time period, only a bit over 9% used guns, but these attacks were responsible for more than half of the fatalities.
It's not just terrorism that is more lethal using guns. Suicide attempts are much more successful if they are made with a gun. In fact, over 80% of suicide attempts made with a gun are effective compared to only 1.5% with drug or poison ingestion. Over half of suicides in the US are achieved with a firearm. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 15 and 34.
Gun ownership is considerably higher in the US than in any other country in the world. We have 112 guns for every 100 people. The next runner up country is Serbia with 58 guns per 100 people and Tunisia has the fewest guns at 1 per 1000 people.
Citizens of the US appear to love their guns. Not everyone, but as a nation we are clearly very enamored. Our second amendment, standing right behind the first which grants us free speech, allows for "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms." This was interpreted by the Supreme Court in 1939 to mean that there was a collective right to bear arms, as would be required to have a state militia, and so a law to make sawed off shotguns illegal was felt to be constitutional. In 2008 the Supreme Court interpreted the second amendment to mean that people had an individual right to bear arms and struck down a Washington DC law prohibiting ownership of handguns. Since that time states have expanded gun rights including, in some, the right to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.
There are federal laws that limit gun ownership, preventing some criminals, drug abusers, spouse abusers, children and felons from obtaining them, but state laws are spotty and many people who use guns to commit crimes obtain them legally. There are classes of weapons that people are restricted from owning, based on the idea that there is no reason for a law abiding citizen to need a machine gun or rocket launcher. The strictest of laws which prohibit gun ownership in some countries would be found unconstitutional in the US, but most Americans support some sort of increased restrictions on gun ownership. Taking peoples' guns away is neither practical or legal, even if a majority of citizens felt like it was a good idea.
People who love guns do so for various reasons. The primary quintessentially American reason is that we feel like it is important to have some physical way to prevent our federal government from controlling a helpless population if that government ever goes over to the dark side. I'm not sure this is really realistic given the very advanced weapons systems and surveillance that the military has at their disposal, but I suppose we could strategically make trouble in a guerrilla warfare sort of way.
There are hunters who like to have rifles of various sorts for sport. There are gun enthusiasts who just think that guns are incredibly cool and love the technology. There are civil war re-enacters who love their classic weapons. There are people who live in dangerous areas who believe that having a gun could deter an intruder. There are people who live in Alaska who very realistically know that a grizzly bear is probably watching them when they hike and may decide to eat them. There are also criminals and violent gang members who want to have guns so they can shoot and kill people.
For dozens of reasons, people in the US love their guns. Because of this we have lots and lots of guns and the guns get used to kill children, concert goers, rivals, wives, husbands, lovers, innocent bystanders, congressmen, police officers, the unfairly and fairly accused, newlyweds and so on. We may love our guns, but most of these deaths are intolerable tragedies. Do we really love guns so much that we are able to tolerate the over 36,000 deaths per year due to them? It appears that, since we have so many guns, people tend to use them. (Go figure.) Do we really need so many guns? We seem to have agreed that certain dangerous people should not own and carry guns. Can we just enforce those laws more effectively?
Seattle, according to an article I just read, has enacted a tax on guns and ammunition. This is a creative and constitutional way to address the sheer numbers of guns in circulation. They charge $25 in taxes per gun sold and 5c per round of ammunition other than 22 gauge which is only 2c. This has been repeatedly challenged in court and has so far stood up. We have also done this with cigarettes (which are responsible for over 10x as many deaths, but usually after protracted and ugly illnesses) with some success. Taxing guns may make ownership go down and perhaps even feed back to production to reduce that. It seems like a reasonable approach and could spread.
It seems like we should step away from partisan politics where guns are concerned and decide to engage in moderation. We did that 50 years ago with cigarettes when the surgeon general told us that they caused cancer. We should do it with sugar as well, as our population is becoming fatter and more diabetic. It is never easy to give up that thing we think we love that is really bad for us, but we need to think, as a nation almost perpetually in mourning over some shooting incident or another, if it isn't just about time.
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