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| Ma'ayan Rosenzweig/ABC News |
The faces
of those 20 first graders massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School, their
devoted teachers and the gunman’s mother have made the issue of gun control the
subject of an impassioned national conversation, leaving many asking why there
are so many mass shootings in the United States.
There are
an estimated 88.8 civilian guns per 100 people in the United States, according
to the Small Arms Survey, a number unparalleled to the rest of the world. With
the right to bear arms written into the Constitution of the United States and
the fabric of American culture, it’s no surprise that this number is higher
than it is in other G-8 countries for which there is data.
But the
United States also has a much higher rate of homicides by gun — 3.2 homicides
by firearm per 100,000 people, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime Homicide Statistics.
Even Italy,
the G-8 member with the second highest rate of homicides by firearm, comes in
far behind the United States. According to United Nations data, a person is 4.5
times more likely to die from gun violence in the United States than Italy.
In France
and the United Kingdom, the homicide by firearm rate is 0.1 per 100,000 people.
That’s one in a million.
The rash of
mass shootings, sad occurrences that have become all too common in the United
States, have left the country “with some hard questions,” President Barack
Obama told the grieving Newtown, Conn., community Sunday evening.
“We can’t
tolerate this anymore,” he told mourners. “These tragedies must end. And to end
them we must change.”
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A child
gazes from a school bus as it passes by the St. Rose
of Lima Catholic church
while mourners gathered for a funeral
service for shooting victim Jessica
Rekos, 6, on December 18,
2012 in Newtown, Connecticut. (John Moore/Getty
Images/AFP)
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