Unbelievable Facts About Guns in America

[puckstopshere]

It’s hard to see a grown man cry. It’s even harder when that man is the president of the United States. Yet President Obama's emotion has been clear both times he's addressed the nation since the shooting. On Sunday night when he spoke in Newtown, Connecticut, his sadness turned to resolve when he said, “Are we really prepared to say that we’re powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?”

This time, the fourth mass shooting during Obama’s term in office, the nation may have heard him. The events in Connecticut have led to fresh calls for more limits on guns and a reinstatement of a ban on the sale of assault weapons, including the semiautomatic rifle that the Newtown gunman, Adam Lanza, used to mow down 20 six- and seven-year-olds and 6 adults. The Fiscal Times took a look at some of the numbers associated with guns.

31  - Mass shootings in the U.S. since Columbine in 1999.

70  - People killed in mass shootings this year in the U.S. (not including the shooters who killed themselves). Seventy-two more people were injured.

19.5/1  - Ratio of people killed by guns in the U.S. compared to other developed countries in the OECD.  For 15-to-20-year-olds, firearm homicide rates in the U.S. are 42.7 times higher than in other OECD countries, according to a 2011 UCLA School of Public Health study.

80   - Percent of all firearm deaths that occurred in the U.S., among the 23 developed countries looked at in the UCLA study. Eighty-seven percent of all children ages 0 to 14 killed by guns in these countries are U.S. children.

47,500  - Murders from firearms in the U.S. between the years 2001-2005 alone – and nearly 8 in 10 of these murders involved a handgun, according to the FBI.

16.8 million - Applications in 2012 to purchase firearms, up from 8.5 million in 2002, according to the FBI. Kentucky saw the most firearm applications this year at 2.3 million.

$31.8 billion - What the firearms industry generated in 2011 in job creation, sales and taxes, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).

30 percent - The growth of gun industry-related jobs during the recession (between 2008 and 2011), according to the NSSF.

693 percent - Rise in stock market value of Sturm, Ruger & Co., the largest publicly-traded gun maker, from Obama’s inauguration until the day before the shooting. Smith & Wesson stock was up 289 percent over that time. Since the shooting, however, both stocks have fallen more than 15 percent.

600 - Estimated number of guns bought back in Oakland and San Francisco, California, this past Saturday, December 15. Each weapon was exchanged for $200 in cash. In Baltimore, Maryland, people sold back 461 guns the same day.

600,000 - Semi-automatic shotguns and rifles bought back as part of new gun control measures in Australia after a 1996 mass shooting in which 35 people were killed. The country also prohibited private sales of guns. From 1995 to 2006, homicides by firearm in Australia plunged 59 percent – and they haven’t had a mass shooting since.

$1,100 - Price of a Bushmaster Model .223 on GunBroker.com, the same model used in the Sandy Hook shooting.

300 million - The approximate number of firearms owned by civilians in the U.S. as of 2010, according to the book Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. Some 47 percent of adults report having a gun in their home, according to an October 2011 Gallup survey. 

1.1 - The percentage of the 108 million background checks processed through the federal system that were denied between 1994 and 2009, according to a 2009 report from the Department of Justice, the latest data available.

2,000 – 5,200 - Gun shows that take place in the U.S. each year.

99 – The number of laws the NRA has pushed through in the past four years making guns easier to own, carry in public, and harder for the government to track. Eight states currently allow firearms in bars.

$17 million  - What the NRA spent on campaigns during the 2012 election cycle.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2012/12/18/19-Unbelievable-Facts-About-Guns-in-America.aspx#p...

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

It's BIG business from manufacturing employees, to taxes, to retail and those employees and other associated businesses. I was just looking at a new scope that turns any rifle bullet into a guided missile. Lock on the red dot in the scope crosshairs to the target and then even if the rifle is moved a bit...the bullet will still go to the red dot. Basically even an amateur can't miss, the perfect sniper rifle for up to 300 yards. Just what everyone in the US needs in their arsenal.

Are things going to change much in the USA? Not a prayer.

[cumos55]

The right to bare arms...

[pigdog47]

The right to bare arms...

..........and legs. 

[cumos55]

l'eggs

[cumos55]

My statement of that US constitutional reality came from a cartoon...

It was an interpretation by very young children  about that unique right.

To them it was

"The right to bare arms"

Kind of ironic following what happen on Friday about a week ago.

I do get the impression that the NRA is going to lose with this next set of rules in the US and it is definitely about time...

It never ceases to amaze me what a US citizen can own...

and it starts with that constitutional right

"The right to bear arms"

Yogi Bear arms  .... sounds better

Now they are saying they should arm teachers in school...what next???

[pigdog47]

Baring l'eggs is more common in the summer.

[cumos55]

Canada Customs searched a car when it was coming north into Manitoba..  It was a small secondary crossover point into Canada

Found  two handguns... Confiscated them  and sent these two travellers back home to the US..

Many US citizens do not realize that Canada has different firearms laws.

US President visits Canada...  Secret Service was not allowed to carry guns in Canada....  The RCMP did its jobs...

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

I use to go to the US with a cop from Sarnia. We would cross the border and on the dash panel of his mustang he would just lay his gun and badge. (this was before 9/11) He didn't carry a standard issue gun but instead a 357 mag because of his particular job. He would flash is badge and we would go through, no questions, no problems. Those days are probably over now.

Personally I have always perferred the idea of ...''the right to arm bears". It would make life much more interesting for the hunters, and the bears. 

[puckstopshere]

Sitting in McDonalds on Friday morning with five other seniors  Discussion came around to guns.  One lady, a transpalnted American, stated that she owned two guns - both acquired in the U.S.  She travels to the U.S. at least once a month and always takes a gun under her car seat.  She is 77.  She lives on Kipps Lane here in London - not the safest place in town.

One gentleman, ex-Canadian Military, stated that he still has his service revolver - it is under his bed, loaded.  He cleans it regularly.  He is 82.  (must be a clooectors item)

Another gentleman, ex British military, stated that he had a gun, in his night table by his bed.  It is cleaned regulary and loaded.  He said his son got it for him, but he doesn't know where. 

I was amazed that 50% of the people at the table had an illegal handgun.  This is Canada.  I wonder how many others have guns that no one knows about.

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

This is Canada. I wonder how many others have guns that no one knows about.

LOL…..I think you would be ………amazed. I could go into detail about people and things I have seen, but probably best I didn’t.

The 77 year old lady is taking a huge risk, I hope she knows that. They don't play games at the border, even with grandmas.

[puckstopshere]

They don't play games at the border, even with grandmas.

She is your typical American.  She has a right to carry that gun - even in Canada.  And no one can tell her any different.  She is aware that it is against the law.  She has her U.S. citizenship (as well as Canadian) and believes that will protect her.

[brandeentertainment]

I know a ton of Canadians with legal and illegal guns but it is the mentality of the Canadian that makes the difference .. I bet if you gave every Canadian and American that were not criminals Guns not much would change in Canada and In the states you would probably see 1000'sa dead very quickly...

I think not sure just think that Having the Mentality that Defense equals guns makes Americans more likely to use them in circumstances Canadians would never even think of a gun .,..

I go to a bar in Canada Party and maybe some idiot wants to fight ok let's do it...

Go to a bar in the states and some idiot wants to fight I would be  more likely to get shot instead of punched...

Was it the NRA that said teachers should carry gun? I would not allow my child to be in a school like that...

We are supposed to be the more civilized and evolved countries yet the states keeps painting this picture of the USA being money hungry and trigger happy .. I know if I went on any trips I would not dare sport the American flag even if I was American..

Guns Are for hunters and hobbiest not scared confused idiots.. You wanna defend yourself take a self defense class and go to the gym once in awhile....

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

the mentality of the Canadian that makes the difference

Absolutely.

You wanna defend yourself take a self defense class and go to the gym once in awhile....

I took a specific martial art for many years. Our sifu was a man named Park Yip. He was a logical and practical man. On the back of the dressing room door he had a sort of comic diagram of a man in a trench coat standing in front of a martial arts person. As each square in the strip continued it showed the martial arts person taking different stances of both offensive and defensive nature. In the final block of the strip it showed the man in the trench coat pull out a gun and shoot the other man. The moral of the story was……one has to know their limitations…..real life isn’t the movies.

When I use to go to the US a lot, I always carried a gun. This of course was before 9/11. The places I was going and the people I was meeting, well it wasn’t that I didn’t trust them necessarily, but hey, you never know. Better safe than sorry.

One time my newly wed wife and I were going across the US and down the eastern seaboard. Before we left I took her out a few times to a local gravel pit to show her how to use the gun. She caught on pretty quick and wasn’t a bad shot. On the last day of instruction we left the pit and we were going down the road when an OPP drove past us going towards the pit and he was ……… moving. Good timing on my part…..and I took every back road from that point just in case he decided to do a u-turn.

[Anonymous]

"The rights to own arms" are pointless when you cannot protect yourself if your gun is sitting in another room while being robbed or attacked or shot in other room!!

Why own a gun either legal or unlegal if you cannot access to it 24/7 like have it sitting in another room or under the bed or in nighttable that you cannot have access to it immediately should anything arise in order to protect yourself??

What more this mother who bought 3 weapons including the automatic weapon is to "protect herself" but ended up being shot in the head 4 times by her own son before he went to the school to kill those 20 innocent children.  So what is the heck is that she bought especially the automatic weapon to protect herself when in fact she cannot protect herself from her own son??!!

Anyone who is a member of NRA is considered as a person with paranoia that they need "arms" to protect themselves.  It is insane and senseless.  

Time to close down the gun stores, gun coventions, gun manufacturers, etc, etc!!

[cumos55]

The NRA's true view of guns, and forced legislation,  is starting to come out  into the open.

Yet this time  I get the feeling the NRA is running scared...  

Opposition to guns  just may be growing, with new restrictions due...

Major changes may be coming.....

The NRA's  response to the last school shooting stinks.  Trying to deflect the responsibility from guns to everything but guns.

Maybe so,,, but without guns, there would have been no school shooting...

[valve37]

Unbelievable in Rochester N.Y! CBC and CTV reporting.

Firemen sent to a residential fire came under fire. Two shot dead and two more going under surgery. Fire continuing out of control until police secure the area. 

[puckstopshere]

Opposition to guns  just may be growing, with new restrictions due...

They may be able to restrict the type of gun, but based on a recent Supreme Court ruling, the Second Amendment is still rock-solid.  According to that amendment, U.S. citizens will always have the right to bear arms. 

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

According to that amendment, U.S. citizens will always have the right to bear arms.

Well it could be challanged again and that time be altered. It all depends on how bad things get in the US and how it affects the people as well as their reaction. Some states could possibly opt out of the 2nd amendment which may with a bit of legal wrangling be possible. Then like same sex marriage one state changes and then another and then another etc etc.

I don't think they will ever 'outlaw' guns, but they could make them increasingly difficult to get.....which will not solve the problem instantly, but instead years down the road. 

[cumos55]

Every long trip starts with a single progressive step