People between the ages of 15 and 24 are most likely to be targeted by gun violence as opposed to other forms of violence. From 1976 to 2005, 77 percent of homicide victims ages 15-17 died from gun-related injuries.
Is a gun like a virus, a car, tobacco or alcohol? Is this yet one more social disease?
Teens and young adults are more likely than persons of other ages to be murdered with a gun.
The last few hours is proof that we have a problem in our nation. Take a look at the list below:
- Chicago Police reported 13 people were shot and wounded in a 30-minute spate of violence Thursday afternoon.
- New York Police reported this morning that a disgruntled employee recently fired from his job shot and killed one of his co-workers then opened fire on the street near the Empire State Building before being shot and killed by police.
After the terrible shootings at the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado followed by the shootings at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin and the every day shootings that affect communities all across out country, we are definitely in a sad violent time in our country.
“What I’m struggling with is, is this the new social norm? This is what we’re going to have to live with if we have more personal access to firearms.We have a public health issue to discuss. Do we wait for the next outbreak or is there something we can do to prevent it?” – Stephen Hargarten, emergency medicine chief at Froedtert Hospital and director of the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
About 260 million to 300 million firearms are owned by civilians in the United States; about one-third of American homes have one. Guns are used in two-thirds of homicides, according to the FBI. About 9 percent of all violent crimes involve a gun — roughly 338,000 cases each year. The lives of the 30,000 Americans who die each year from firearms, their friends and families, and the communities decimated by gun violence must take precedence over the profit-driven goals of the gun industry.
Read:How To Discuss Tragedy With Your Children
If you are angry… here is your chance to do something. Reach out to these organizations:
Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
Protest Easy Guns
States United to Prevent Gun Violence
Violence Policy Center
State and Local Organizations
Arizonans for Gun Safety
Women Against Gun Violence (California)
Ceasefire Maryland
Ceasefire New Jersey (a project of the Coalition for Peace Action)
Ceasefire Oregon
CeaseFirePA
Colorado Ceasefire
Connecticut Against Gun Violence Education Fund
Georgians for Gun Safety
GunFreeKids.org
Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah
Hawaii Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence
Hoosiers Concerned About Gun Violence
Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence
Maine Citizens Against Handgun Violence
Stop Handgun Violence (Massachusetts)
Northland Brady Chapter (Minnesota)
Million Mom March, Richmond, VA chapter
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence
North Carolinians Against Gun Violence
Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence
Lance Orchid, National Organizing Director, Gun Violence Prevention
Protect Minnesota
Virginia Center for Public Safety
Washington CeaseFire
Wisconsin Anti-Violence Educational Fu
Do you need more numbers to prove there is a problem? Read the book, “Violence in America: A Public Health Emergency Time to Bite the Bullet Back” written by C. Everett Koop, MD; George D. Lundberg, MD.
Gun Violence By The Numbers & What You Can Do was originally published on elev8.com