These graphics show just how much of an insane outlier the US is on guns

[RiverLover]

These graphics show just how much of an insane outlier the US is on guns
Vox
6/20/15

Despite signs of decline in gun ownership, the US still has a huge number of private guns. In 2012, Americans owned an estimated 270 million guns, almost 42 percent of the total number of civilian-owned guns on the entire planet...



In developed countries, there is a strong correlation between the number of guns and incidences of gun violence. In 2012, the US, which has the most guns per capita, also had the most firearm-related homicides of developed countries...



http://www.vox.com/2015/6/20/8544507/gun-murders-ownership-charts

USA! USA! USA!



" Americans are 20 times as likely to die from gun violence as citizens of other civilized countries." (source)

[Surya Gayatri]

1. Here's another interesting graphic, as if any more evidence were needed

of America's deadly gun derangement.



Read more here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026871805

[RiverLover]

2. Namaste Surya!!

Very powerful graphic, thanks! Such a sad state. Idiocracy abounds in America.

[Surya Gayatri]

5. And 'Namaste' to you River! On this auspicious World Yoga Day!

[Recursion]

8. Why are you comparing to "justifiable homicides"?

Do you think every defensive use of a gun kills someone? Or even involves the gun being fired?

[Surya Gayatri]

18. This is a graphic from The INDEPENDENT in the UK. Please purvey your gun love elsewhere.

Over and out. Goodbye, Goodbye [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]

[Recursion]

19. And I asked why you chose it

What does the number of justifiable homicides tell you? Is that the extent of defensive uses of guns you see?

[Surya Gayatri]

20. I thought I said 'Good-bye'...didn't get the message? Well then, I'll repeat myself...

[Recursion]

21. And I thought I asked a question

You are free to not respond if you don't want to or can't answer.

[Surya Gayatri]

23. ...

[Enthusiast]

41. Pffft!

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Enthusiast]

46. It seems so.

[hifiguy]

57. Arguing with the ammosexuals is like arguing with fundies.

Facts bounce off of them like bullets off of Superman.

The BELIEVE in the Church of Gunz; they don't need to KNOW anything.

[marble falls]

29. In the face of gun violence, what possible gun or amunition do you want you can't buy?....

How has all this murder really affected your ability to be armed to the teeth? Why are you trying to stir it up on this thread? Why can't you allow us to morn the dead from gun violence?

[Recursion]

32. My bigger problem is that this ignores countries like Brazil and Russia

Which have strict gun control and much higher gun death rates than the US.

[DanTex]

36. This again? You can't seriously think that Brazil and Russia are part of America's international

cohort. The international evidence on gun control is truly striking. Every single nation that remotely resembles the US has far less gun violence and homicide than we do. The fact that you even need to bring up Brazil and Russia to cherry-pick examples to the contrary is telling.

[Recursion]

37. I totally think that. We're more like Brazil than Germany

At least by most social indicators.

[DanTex]

40. No we aren't. And no social scientists believe that either. Check the HDI, for example.

Brazil ranks below Libya and Iran.

The fact that you are making these absurd claims actually strengthens the case for gun control, because it shows the length that people trying to deny the correlations have to go to to cherry-pick counterexamples.

There literally isn't one example of a nation that has homicide rates comparable to ours that wouldn't get you laughed out of any graduate seminar if you brought it up.

[Betty Karlson]

49. Thank you for that addition. n/t

[SheilaT]

3. But, but, gun homicides are declining in this country!!

Or so I'm assured by the gun apologists.

I'm still in favor of gun confiscation.

[Recursion]

7. Of course they are. Have been for the past 20 years.

You do understand that that is true, right?

[SheilaT]

10. Big fucking whoop.

Thousands of people are still murdered every year in this country. With guns. Reread the OP and tell me that it's just hunky-dory that we have all these murders. With guns. Doesn't happen elsewhere. Every time the declining gun murder rate is brought up I can only take it that you are perfectly okay with the very many that still happen. If the guns weren't there, the murders wouldn't happen.

[Recursion]

12. It does happen elsewhere, with greater frequency

Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Venezuela...

[SheilaT]

13. Great company.

But that still does not make it okay here.

Or maybe I should be asking: So when will our gun murder rate get down to a level somewhat closer to the other countries in the first graphic in the OP? And how okay is it with you if along the way your spouse, or cousin, or best friend is killed by a gun? It'll be okay, right? Because after all the gun murder rate is dropping here.

[Recursion]

14. I've seen a lot of the world and I don't consider the US a developed nation

Our government and social patterns are much closer to post-colonial developing nations. We will probably continue improving, just like the rest of them are.

[SheilaT]

16. Well, that explains it.

We don't live in a developed country and so of course our high gun murder rate is just what you'd expect. That clears up a lot of confusion on my part.

[davidn3600]

22. Psychos will always find a way to kill

Just yesterday in Austria, a mentally ill man (police say he's mentally ill) took his car and started running people over in a crowded shopping area. He killed 3 people including a 7-year old boy. 50 people were injured. Then, he got out and started attacking people with a knife.

People who are simply determined to kill like that are dangerous whether they have a gun or not. Yes, I understand guns seem to make it too easy to kill. But to suggest banning guns will stop violence is incredibly ignorant. Violence existed in civilization long before the gun was invented. Also, removing guns won't stop racism. We could have all guns banned and Dylann Roof would still be making pictures of himself holding the Confederate flag plotting a different way to kill.

[Recursion]

24. True, but guns are a relatively easy method

We've never had a mass shooting as bad as Norway, for instance, but for the most part "our" mass murderers seem to prefer guns while in most other places they prefer arson.

That said, 2/3rds of US gun deaths are suicide. If suicide isn't front and center in your gun control policy, you're just nibbling at the edges.

[Travis_0004]

33. So why is Canada so much lower?

Their firearm laws are largely the same as ours, so if access to guns is the only problem, I would expect their rate to be higher.

[Spazito]

54. No, Canada's laws are not "largely the same as ours"...

Here are the laws governing firearm control in Canada:

he control of firearms in Canada is predominantly governed by the Firearms Act, the Criminal Code, and their subordinate regulations. The Criminal Code defines the main categories of firearms, which include restricted, prohibited, and non-restricted firearms. The Firearms Act regulates the possession, transport, and storage of firearms.

Canadian law has both licensing and registration requirements for the possession and acquisition of firearms. These requirements are administered by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) through the Canadian Firearms Program (CFP).

Applicants are required to pass safety tests before they can be eligible for a firearms license. Applicants are also subject to background checks, which take into account criminal, mental health, addiction, and domestic violence records.

Back to Top
Overview of Firearms-Control Laws and Regulations

At the federal level in Canada, firearms are predominantly regulated by the Firearms Act[1] and Part III of the Criminal Code.[2] Apart from these federal laws, “[p]rovinces, territories or municipalities may have additional laws and regulations that apply in their jurisdiction. For example, provinces are responsible for regulating hunting.”[3]

Categories of Firearms

The Criminal Code identifies “the various firearms, weapons and devices regulated by the Firearms Act.”[4] The Code classifies firearms into three categories: restricted,[5] prohibited,[6] and non-restricted.[7] Non-restricted firearms “include ordinary shotguns and rifles, such as those commonly used for hunting. But some military type rifles and shotguns are prohibited.”[8] Restricted firearms include “certain handguns and some semi-automatic long guns (not all semi-automatic long guns are restricted or prohibited). Rifles that can be fired when telescoped or folded to shorter than 660 millimeters, or 26 inches, are also restricted.”[9] Prohibited firearms “include most 32 and 25 caliber handguns and handguns with a barrel length of 105 mm or shorter. Fully automatic firearms, converted automatics, firearms with a sawed-off barrel, and some military rifles like the AK 47 are also prohibited.”[10]

Note also that “antique firearms are not considered firearms for licensing and registration purposes.”[11]

Licensing and Registration Requirements

1. Licensing and Permits

The Firearms Act and its supporting regulations govern the possession, transport, and storage of firearms.[12] The Act stipulates the rules for possessing and acquiring a firearm,[13] which include both licensing and registration requirements.[14] A person must have a valid firearms license to possess or acquire firearms as well as ammunition. A firearms license is issued to a license holder if he or she has “met certain public-safety criteria and is allowed to possess and use firearms.”[15]

According to the RCMP website, “ndividuals must be at least 18 years old to get a licence that will allow them to own or to acquire a firearm,”[16] known as a Possession and Acquisition Licence, or PAL. Applicants seeking to acquire a license for non-restricted firearms are required to pass the Canadian Firearms Safety Course (CFSC) tests.[17] If applicants are applying for a license for restricted or prohibited firearms they must pass the Canadian Restricted Firearms Safety Course (CRFC) tests in addition to the CFSC.[18]

The PAL is the only license now available to new applicants over eighteen years old. An existing Possession-Only License,[19] or POL, can be renewed, but new ones have not been issued since 2001. According to the Canadian Bar Association (CBA), “[a] Possession-Only Licence lets you use firearms already registered to you. It also lets you borrow firearms of the same class as the ones you own.”[20]

Minors aged twelve to seventeen can get a minor’s license that will “allow them to possess a non-restricted rifle or shotgun, but a licensed adult must be responsible for the firearm.”[21] Applicants must also complete the Canadian Firearms Safety Course and pass the test in order to get a minor’s license.[22]

A PAL can be issued for a firearm of any class (non-restricted, restricted, and prohibited). However, possessing or acquiring restricted[23] or prohibited firearms is subject to very stringent requirements. The general rule is that restricted and prohibited firearms must be possessed in the holder’s residence (or at a place authorized by a chief firearms officer), as recorded in the Firearms Registry.[24] According to the Act, a restricted or prohibited firearm can be transported and used under very strict and specific circumstances, including among others “for use in target practice, or a target shooting competition.”[25]

Under the Firearms Act and its regulations, a person can carry a restricted firearm or prohibited handgun, whether concealed or unconcealed, only in very limited circumstances.[26] In most cases, a permit known as an Authorization to Carry (ATC) is required, such as when “an individual needs restricted firearms or prohibited handguns for use in connection with his or her lawful profession or occupation”[27] or to protect life.[28]

According to the RCMP, persons are allowed to possess only certain prohibited firearms “if they had one registered in their name when it became prohibited, and they have continuously held a valid registration certificate for that type of prohibited firearm from December 1, 1998, onward.”[29] Moreover, a PAL “allows an individual to acquire only prohibited firearms in the same categories as the ones currently registered to them, and only if the firearms they wish to acquire were registered in Canada on December 1, 1998.”[30] Restricted or prohibited firearms must also be “verified by an approved verifier if they are being transferred to a new owner and have not been previously verified.”[31]

Firearms licenses are “generally valid for five years, and must be renewed before they expire.”[32] It is the license holder’s responsibility to apply for a license renewal.

Back to Top

2. Registration

Under the Firearms Act, all restricted and prohibited firearms must be registered.[33] After April 2012, pursuant to amending legislation, non-restricted firearms no longer have to be registered.[34] However, “due to a Court Order issued by the Quebec Superior Court, residents of Quebec are still required to register non-restricted firearms.”[35]

All licensing and registration is managed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Canadian Firearms Program (CFP).[36] The CFP manages the Canadian Firearms Registry.[37]

more here:

http://www.loc.gov/law/help/firearms-control/canada.php

Common sense gun control, imo.

[laundry_queen]

55. Um, no the laws are not comparable.

It's already been answered in detail but here's the short version: Canada has many laws regarding guns - laws for registration, licensing, storage, transport etc. Hand guns especially are tightly regulated. My SIL - who is a cop - wanted more target practice, and still had to go through licensing, registration, safety courses etc to get her hand gun. It's not even close to the same as the US.

[ileus]

4. Why do these guns keep murdering people???

[RiverLover]

17. Luckily, for Australia, wiser minds prevailed over your type of thinking.

This is what happened when Australia introduced tight gun controls
6/19/15

...But can something be done? Australia, a country that in some ways shares the United States' frontier mentality and history as part of the British empire, implemented sweeping gun-control measures that have been successful for nearly two decades. So, theoretically it's possible, but "the power to do something about it" in the U.S. is limited by factors that are deeply rooted in its culture and baked into its founding document.

...What happened in Australia? Gun violence was bad. A decade of gun massacres had seen more than 100 people shot dead. The last straw was an incident at a popular tourist spot at Port Arthur, Tasmania, in April 1996, when a lone gunman killed 20 people with his first 29 bullets, all in the space of 90 seconds. This "pathetic social misfit," to quote the judge in the case, achieved his final toll of 35 people dead and 18 seriously wounded by firing a military-style semiautomatic rifle.

What happened next? Only 12 days after the shootings, in John Howard's first major act of leadership and by far the most popular in his first year as Prime Minister, his government announced nationwide gun law reform.

Uniform legislation agreed to by all states and territories -- the national government has no control over gun ownership or use -- specifically addressed mass shootings: Rapid-fire rifles and shotguns were banned, gun owner licensing was tightened and remaining firearms were registered to uniform national standards.

How did Australia do it? In two nationwide, federally funded gun buybacks, plus large-scale voluntary surrenders and state gun amnesties both before and after Port Arthur, Australia collected and destroyed more than a million firearms, perhaps a third of the national stock, according to Professor Philip Alpers of the University of Sydney, who is editor of gunpolicy.org. No other nation had attempted anything on this scale. The national government also banned the importation of new automatic and semiautomatic weapons. And the buyback was paid for by a special one-off tax on all Australians.

What was the political fallout? It wasn't without cost to John Howard. Political interest groups among his conservative base raised hell, and the move met strong resistance from some in rural areas. His party's coalition partner in those areas suffered in subsequent elections. But the majority of Australians, shocked by the mass killing, backed action. And it worked...

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/19/world/us-australia-gun-control/

^^^^ This is what we should have done after Newtown/Sandy Hook. It BLOWS MY MIND nothing changed after those sweet, precious toddlers were gunned down in a closet.

[Recursion]

6. Silly graphic. Add Russia, Brazil, Venezuela, and South Africa

and the US isn't an outlier at all as far as violence goes.

[jomin41]

9. That's interesting. They also are

countries run by a relatively few rich and powerful people.

[Recursion]

11. Yup. Our government model is closer to South Africa or Brazil than the UK

Having seen a lot of the world, I look at the US as a very successful non-developed nation rather than a laggard developed one.

[RiverLover]

25. So we're a non-developed nation now, so its ok gun deaths are more rampant here than those

civilized countries like Germany & the UK?

[Recursion]

27. No, it's another example of why nondeveloped nations like us need to build the social infrastructure

that nations like Germany and the UK spent generations building. But the place of guns in society there is an effect, not a cause (and not even a universal effect, viz. Switzerland).

[krispos42]

31. It means systemic social problems can't be mitigated...

... by trying to control hardware.

The sharp drop in crime in the early 90's was because of social (widespread abortion and birth control) and environmental policies (removing lead from gasoline & environments clean-up) enacted in the early 70's, not because of gun laws or mass incarceration or "broken windows" policing.

Your side's ongoing attempts to treat this as a hardware issue keeps putting fucking REPUBLICANS in power and keeps society from getting better!

Reforming recreational drug laws? Sorry, that was sacrificed for banning rifles with protruding pistol grips.

Public option? Nope, that was sacrificed for banning bayonet mounting lugs.

Better schools? Magazine capacity limit.

President Gore? Sorry, banning folding stocks on rifles was much more important.

[awoke_in_2003]

56. Wow, I feel better

being in that company. We compare favorably with China and Saudi Arabia with government sanctioned murder, too.

[daleanime]

15. The fact that we don't do anything about this....

proves the power of corporate propaganda.

[Recursion]

26. What's the corporate propaganda here?

Last edited Sun Jun 21, 2015, 09:38 AM - Edit history (1)

The US arms manufacturers care most about the military/law enforcement contracts and will toe whatever line the government wants them to. The NRA is funded by gun owners (and yet the NRA remains in my opinion the biggest long term threat to the right to keep and bear arms).

[RiverLover]

34. Acc to Obama, the "gun lobby/NRA's grip on congress is stopping stricter control"

along with public apathy..

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/r-obama-blames-gun-lobby-grip-on-congress-for-lax-us-gun-laws-2015-6

I can't believe you didn't know that.

[Recursion]

35. The NRA isn't the lobby for manufacturers

There aren't any corporations it represents.

[Human101948]

52. Oh really? They sure do a lot P.R. to increase gun sales. Here's why...

Since 2005, the gun industry and its corporate allies have given between $20 million and $52.6 million to it through the NRA Ring of Freedom sponsor program. Donors include firearm companies like Midway USA, Springfield Armory Inc, Pierce Bullet Seal Target Systems, and Beretta USA Corporation. Other supporters from the gun industry include Cabala's, Sturm Rugar & Co, and Smith & Wesson.

The NRA also made $20.9 million — about 10 percent of its revenue — from selling advertising to industry companies marketing products in its many publications in 2010, according to the IRS Form 990.


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/gun-industry-funds-nra-2013-1#ixzz3diTGJqim

[Pooka Fey]

28. K&R

[marym625]

30. K&R

Thank you!

[3catwoman3]

38. Insane outlier...

...is right.

Fuck the NRA. We need to grow up and stop thinking that killing people is the way to fix problems between people.

[Moostache]

39. Its been 13 years since 'Bowling for Columbine'...nothing has changed.

The really stunning thing to me is that we are still in the literal death grip of the NRA even after all of the accumulated horrors of gun violence and mass shootings. When Sandy Hook happened and nothing substantial changed I lost hope of ever seeing meaningful reform or responsible consequences for owners and purchasers of firearms. Now? Its obvious that this country is rotten to the core and without a soul to bother fighting for.

Not original, but I don't know who to credit for it off the top of my head: If baking a cake for a gay wedding reception is "participating" in the wedding, why is selling the gun or ammunition used in a shooting NOT "participating" in the murder?

I do not wish to ban guns outright or take them away from legitimate owners - but onerous ownership laws that require background checks, purchaser liability and burdensome paperwork are all steps that could be taken to stem the tide of wanton violence and death so clearly seen here and NOT elsewhere in the world.

Its time to stop being "'murica!" and return to being the "United States of America" and while guns alone won't achieve that, accepting the FACT that we have a serious gun problem would be a good first step.

[damnedifIknow]

43. I've never owned a gun and see no reason to do so

I live in the city and hear of shootings almost daily but I still prefer less lethal means for personal protection.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

44. Here's one I save from the NY Times....

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/04/21/weekinreview/20070422_MARSH_GRAPHIC.html

[barbtries]

45. so called "civilized" country.

i stopped considering the US civilized when my daughter was killed. since then, hundreds of thousands (?) more...disclaimer she was not killed with a gun, she was killed with a car. i know many mothers whose children were however. way too many.

[RiverLover]

48. I'm so sorry for your tremendous & tragic loss.

Death by car, by gun. Both so utterly tragic.

[barbtries]

50. thank you RiverLover

[LWolf]

47. The U.S. is an outlier when it comes to many

issues that benefit people and the planet.

[smirkymonkey]

51. K&R

[Rex]

53. So we jump into the thousands, whereas Canada stays at 200.

That seems strange since Canada has about as many guns per person as the US. What is it about some countries and their fetish for gun violence?

[Skittles]

58. lots of cowards in the "Home of the Brave"