Everytown for Gun Safety’s interactive report highlights alarming trends in U.S. gun violence.
By Allegra Kirkland / AlterNet
By now, the cycle is familiar. One morning the news will light up with reports of a lone gunman wreaking havoc in a public place or a relative’s home. For days, left-wing politicians and grieving families will plead for common-sense gun control legislation, even as conservatives and NRA reps make their usual “gun’s don’t kill people, people do” stump speeches. Then, as quickly as the tragedy entered the public consciousness, it falls off the radar, forgotten until the next mass shooting occurs.
According to an interactive report from Everytown for Gun Safety, Americans have experienced about two mass shootings (involving four or more deaths) each month since January 2009. The report, which relies on FBI data and media reports from the last four years, exposes alarming trends in US gun violence. Here are some of the most striking statistics:
- 42% of mass shooters possessed their guns illegally because they were felons, domestic abusers, or were otherwise prohibited under federal law from having guns.
- 51% of mass shooting victims are women, while the shooters are nearly exclusively male.
- 57% of mass shootings are related to domestic violence, meaning the shooter killed a current or former partner or family member.
Check out the rest of the report here.
“42% of mass shooters possessed their guns illegally because they were felons, domestic abusers, or were otherwise prohibited under federal law from having guns.”
And yet they broke the law by merely possessing the firearm before they broke the law by murdering their victims. So how many more laws do you think it will take for law breakers to start obeying the law?
Gun control only CONTROLS the law abiding.
HUH?
One of the most famous studies clearly states: more guns, more gun-related murders. All you have to do is make those gun laws SO STRICT, it would be almost impossible to buy guns and extremely uncomfortable to own them. However, the gun lobby wants its money so before you go all up in arms, it is unlikely to happen any time soon.
So you would then more comfortable with more murders from the use of knives, blunt objects, and so on? You do realize that making it harder for the law abiding citizen to own firearms makes no one safer other than the criminals who ignore the laws in the first place. It really is just that simple.
“Make yourselves sheep and the wolves will eat you.”
Benjamin Franklin