Some stats for thought

In the United States in 2009 there were 3 recorded intentional homicides committed with a firearm per 100,000 inhabitants; for comparison, the figure for the United Kingdom, with very restrictive firearm laws (handguns are totally prohibited, for example) was .07, about 40 times lower, and for Germany .02. Firearms are also the most common method of suicide, accounting for 53.7% of all suicides committed in the United States in 2003.

I also did some FBI digging. In 2006, the FBI reported there were 10,177 gunshot deaths, but there were 2.5 million crimes de-escalated by armed citizens, who believed they had sufficient control of the situation that they did not have to fire their weapon. Sometimes by merely displaying their weapon.

From 1994 to 2004, the Federal Assault Weapons Ban was in place.


Except for 1999, a year of five shootings (including the Columbine massacre), the assault ban period was peaceful by US standards:
Years Shootings Per year People shot/year
1982-1994 19 1.5 25.5
1995-2004 16 1.6 20.9
2005-2012 27 3.4* 54.8*
*p<0.05 compared with 1995-2004.

Since the expiration of the gun ban in 2004, the number of shootings per year has doubled, and the number of victims per year has nearly tripled. Three of the bloodiest four years shown here occurred since the expiration.






Just for the record, I support the second amendment along with some rational restrictions to its use. Personally, I plan to legally own a firearm at some point in the future.