On a day when the 355th mass shooting this year in the USA occurred in San Bernardino, California, it seems appropriate to discuss gun violence.
A recently accepted publication in the American Journal of Medicine compared morality data from the USA to other high-income countries, and found the following:
The US homicide rates were 7.0 times higher than the aggregated rates of all other high-income countries.
This is driven primarily by a gun homicide rate that is 25.2 higher
For 15-24 year olds, the gun homicide rate is 49.0 higher
The overall US suicide rate is average
However, in the USA the firearm-related suicide rates were 8.0 times higher
Unintentional firearm deaths were 6.2 times higher in the US.
The overall firearm death rate in the US from all causes was 10.0 times higher.
Bottom line: As stated in the article: “The US has an enormous firearm problem compared to other high-income countries with much higher rates of homicide and firearm-related suicide.”
Grinshteyn E, Hemenway D. Violent Death Rates: The United States Compared to Other High-Income OECD Countries, 2010. Am J Med. 2015 Nov 6. pii: S0002-9343(15)01030-X. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2015.10.025.
