Twelve facts about guns and mass shootings in the United States

When we first collected much of this data, it was after the Aurora, Colo. shootings, and the air was thick with calls to avoid "politicizing" the tragedy. That is code, essentially, for "don't talk about reforming our gun control laws." Let's be clear: That is a form of politicization. When political actors construct a political argument that threatens political consequences if other political actors pursue a certain political outcome, that is, almost by definition, a politicization of the issue. It's just a form of politicization favoring those who prefer the status quo to stricter gun control laws. Since then, there have been more horrible, high-profile shootings. If roads were collapsing all across the United States, killing dozens of drivers, we would surely see that as a moment to talk about what we could do to keep roads from collapsing. What follows here isn't a policy agenda. 1. Mother Jones has tracked and mapped every shooting spree in the last three decades. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Refuting Anti-Gun Control Arguments | The Progressive Cynic © Josh Sager – January 2012 The recent rash of mass shootings in the United States is simply part of a long-term trend of gun violence unique to our country. The Sandy Hook school shooting is tragic—it caused the death of 20 children—but the true tragedy is that such a shooting is only the tip of the iceberg of our country’s gun problem. According to FBI statistics, 46,313 Americans were murdered with firearms during the time period of 2007 to 2011. To put this death-toll into perspective, this translates to an average of 9,263 murders per year, or 25 murders per day. No other developed country on earth has as lax gun laws or more weapons than the United States. Currently, there are 88 guns for every 100 people living in the United States (not even counting the illegal weapons which our government couldn’t account for). 1. First, here is the text of the 2nd Amendment: 2. 3. Guns don’t kill people; people kill people. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. In Columbine High School, there was an armed guard. 9.

Just something I came across and found interesting after our discussion today by camillelarkins Dec 15