Going to the US or living there is scary. At least in some countries like in Mexico, an innocent my get hit accidentally by gangs wars. In the US the bullets seems to be directly for the innocent people.
this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
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Meh, I grew up next to some favelas, and that level of violence is another level entirely, it's just not covered as intently. People get kidnapped, families of rival gangs are targeted, not to mention the extortion.
That being said, the US has no fucking excuse. Central and South American countries suffering from massive gangs and civil wars, they have a good reason for having so many gun deaths.
Literally. Walmart, a block party, a club, TOO MANY SCHOOLS TO COUNT, a concert, etc, etc. It never seems to end, and yet we do nothing.
As an American, you are statistically more likely to be struck by lightning than randomly shot.
I am 65 years old and have lived in multiple states. Never been shot at, never shot a gun (except in the US Navy), never experienced any gun violence in my personal life.
As a child welfare worker I have experienced a few cases of gun violence in my professional life of nearly 30 years.
The situation of gun violence is extremely serious but also highly dramatized by media leading to the possibility of miscalculating risk.
Be careful and situationally aware is all the advice I can provide.
When you compare America’s gun violence to other countries, which is a much more logical comparison than lightning, it is obvious America has a horrific gun violence problem.
To quell some confusion regarding gun deaths and gun deaths related to crime in the U.S. you have to dig a little more to understand the picture better.
Gun crime in the U.S. is not great, but it is not as bad as it is perceived. This said, I'm in firm agreement that something needs to be done about mass shootings. We have the collective will to do this, yet are constantly stymied by interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, and the NRA (which lobbies against gun related crime/deaths in the U.S. on a continuous basis).
So gun deaths in the U.S. are high...second highest in the world.
- Brazil — 49,436
- United States — 37,038
- Venezuela — 28,515
- Mexico — 22,116
- India — 14,710
- Colombia — 13,169
- Philippines — 9,267
- Guatemala — 5,980
However deaths related to gun violence offers a different picture...here are the top 10 countries with the highest number of gun-related homicides per 100,000 (2019 data).
- El Salvador — 36.78
- Venezuela — 33.27
- Guatemala — 29.06
- Colombia — 26.36
- Brazil — 21.93
- Bahamas — 21.52
- Honduras — 20.15
- U.S. Virgin Islands — 19.40
- Puerto Rico — 18.14
- Mexico — 16.41
Suicide
Bringing in suicide statistics via firearm clarifies this picture even further
Top 10 countries with the highest suicide rate by firearm per 100,000
Greenland — 16.36
United States — 7.12
Uruguay — 4.74
San Marino — 4.08
Montenegro — 3.40
Argentina — 2.67
Finland — 2.66
Monaco — 2.64
France — 2.64
Venezuela — 2.50
The total rate of firearm deaths in the U.S. is 10.89 per 100,000. This means, the total rate of firearm deaths due to violent crime is 3.77 per 100,000 people.
So while mass shootings in the U.S. are a problem, it's not as impactful as the suicide rate by firearm in the country.