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]

Houston-area police officer and bystander fatally shot after accident, chase in Houston

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Houstonarea+police+officer+bystander+fatally+shot+after/7742088/...

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

The ex-convict who lured two firefighters to their deaths in a blaze of gunfire left a note saying he wanted to burn down the neighbourhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people," police in New York state said Tuesday as they recovered burned human remains thought to be the gunman's missing sister.

Police Chief Gerald Pickering said 62-year-old William Spengler, who served 17 years in prison for the 1980 hammer killing of his grandmother, armed himself with a revolver, a shotgun and a military-style rifle before he set his house on fire to lure first responders into a death trap before dawn on Christmas Eve.

"He was equipped to go to war, kill innocent people," Pickering said.

Spengler had a .223-calibre semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle, the same make and calibre weapon used in this month's school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/12/25/rochester-firefighters-ambush-condition.html 

[zoomrr69]

drone strikes have killed more children..

don't see him cryin there do u?

[dlbiten]

Citizen of the USA here so think I rebut some of what is here. 

In the founding documents of the USA you have bill of right the is 10 amendments to the Constitution.  There at the core of what may have believe in and fight and die for even today.    "The right to keep and bear arms" is the 2nd of 10 only the "freedom of the press" if higher. 

Not all gun deaths are a crime but are still reported.  Suicide is a big one with 20,000 or so per year as it is fast.  Then there are children that grab a gun think it a toy and shoot them self or another.  Hart braking but not a crime still add to the death toll.  Then there are the gangs taking up most of the rest and with the guns and drug trade on the southern border it will only get worse.  Most people with a gun shoot it only a 1 year or less.  You are not going see roving bands gun toting people in the USA.   Open carry will get you cops called on you in the USA gust as fast in Canada. 

One figure I have seen for guns in Canada there are 16% of Canada homes that have a firearm and 15% that have one that is not legal.  In the USA 47% do around 140 million so homes (and going up from 43%).  Adding another 50% or so will get you no more crime than we have now.  Why? In the USA if you want a gun and can get one legal you have one.  Canada on the other hand you have a bit of a job to to get one and then even more to move it around. (or so I am told)

The mother of the shooter did not have a automatic firearm all 3 are semi-automatic even the AR15 Bushmaster in .223.  the others are a Sig in 9mm and a Glock in 10mm  Handguns. 

When I got my first gun before all this gun banning new laws and school shootings all I need was proof of age.  Now there is paperwork a background check and a week or so to get one,  Now we need bans and there are school shootings?  I do not see the reason unless it the hate and fear that is pushed down on the people of the USA every day till someone brakes. 

Member ship in the NRA makes you have paranoia insane and senseless, is like not being in it makes you a leftist fascist hell bent on world domination.  It can not and will not make you anything.  But are trying to keep the gun rights I had years ago going long after I am gone.  It has worked for 200 years and last I looked the USA is still going.  not that are leaders for the last 12 years have anything to do with it.

There are many places that Ban guns in the USA.  Some states make hard to buy a gun some have a mag. max of 10 rounds.  The school that had the shootings is gust such a place.  No gun unless your a cop.  fail this and loose your gun and go to jail. There a gun free zone and as such If you want to kill as many as you can it is a safe place.  In one war torn part of the world they do arm the teachers and low there are not shooting in them.  Even if there killed buy the bus load it of school there safe inside.  At one time there was talk of putting a guard in all schools and reinforcing the outside some did and still do to this day other said that gun free law was all that was need.

As far as are do guns kill?  Nope people do.  I have a gun and it has not shot anyone.  Baseball bats kill more people than guns do so do cars and the bus and all manner of things.

[puckstopshere]

Then there are children that grab a gun think it a toy and shoot them self or another.

This is a crime committed by the person who did not properly secure the gun so the child couldn't get ahold of it.

[puckstopshere]

The mother of the shooter did not have a automatic firearm all 3 are semi-automatic even the AR15 Bushmaster in .223. the others are a Sig in 9mm and a Glock in 10mm Handguns.

I am sure that the kids and teacher who died will be impressed by the difference, along with their families. 

[puckstopshere]

Now there is paperwork a background check and a week or so to get one,

Unless it is a private sale between individuals.  There are many millions of guns in the U.S. that were registered but are no longer in the hands of the registered owner.  A person with a felony record cannot legally buy a gun.  Nothing stopping them from buying a gun from another citizen.

[puckstopshere]

As far as are do guns kill? Nope people do.

Especially when there are guns everywhere and so easily obtained.  If they couldn't get all these high powered weapons, they would not be able to kill so easily.

I have a gun and it has not shot anyone.

Yet!

Baseball bats kill more people than guns do so do cars and the bus and all manner of things.

NRA propaganda.  I would rather take my chances against a guy with a baseball bat than the same guy with a Bushmaster.  Against a bat, I have a chance.

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

Interesting comments dlbiten.

However here is how a lot of people look at it…….

- The 2nd amendment was written a longggggg time ago and was written based on the situation of that time, shortly after the war for American Independence where although the new United States did have an army, they still needed the independent citizen to step up to the plate if necessary. These were known as the ‘Minute Men’.

Would you not agree that in the history of many countries there are many things that applied to the ‘past’, but no longer apply to the present because society has changed?

- The 2nd amendment also is rarely fully presented in its entirety. What it actually says in full is ……. “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The necessity of a militia is no longer necessary especially in a country with one of the most powerful full militaries in the world, as well as a contingent of ‘reservists’ who could be classified as a militia of sorts but they do not bring their own guns to war…..they are kept in an armoury.

- So, the ‘right’ to bear arms, based on the full text of the 2nd amendemnt from 221 years ago, in a different era, is obsolete for the 21st century.