America's Gun Violence Epidemic

With more guns in circulation than the national population (393 million), the United States has the most gun violence in the world, particularly with regard to child death, mass shootings, and suicide. Every year, 38,000 Americans die as a result of gun violence, and 30,000 more are injured by a firearm (Gun Violence Archive [GVA], 2018). This report utilizes comprehensive national and state level data from The Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a non-profit that deploys daily queries from 7,500 sources to provide real-time information on gun violence and gun-related crime in the United States. The GVA reports on incidents of gun violence — which are defined as any death or injury from a gun — and contextualizes the incidents with information on their cause, location, and corresponding media reports (GVA, 2018). 

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According to the Pew Research Center, 98 million Americans (30%) own a gun, while 48% of adults grew up in a household with guns and 59% of adults indicate that their friends own guns (Gramlich & Schaeffer, 2019; Wooten, 2021a). Further, the staggering amount of injury and death from gun use across the country can likely be attributed to America’s extremely unregulated firearm market and flexible requirements for gun ownership. According to a Vox article on gun policy,  semi-automatic and non-automatic guns are legal in the U.S., writ large, with little licensing requirements or safety training prior to purchase (Matthews, 2014). Even registration of guns is not required in most states, and eight states overtly ban firearm registries. This stands in sharp contrast to our neighboring country of Canada, which imposes strict universal licensing laws, safety tests, and prohibition of both concealed and open carrying of weapons (Matthews, 2014). Given Canada’s stringent governance surrounding gun ownership and usage, it comes as no surprise that Canada’s gun homicide rate is about 14 times lower than that of the U.S. (Everytown Research & Policy, 2020). Further, despite the U.S. federal background check program being implemented in 1994, many civilians are able to obtain a firearm without undergoing the clearance due to loopholes in the policy provided by exemptions for unlicensed gun suppliers. As such, an estimated 22% of gun owners acquired their most recent gun without a background check. Comparatively, in Canada, applicants for gun licenses are obligated to pass extensive background checks, including screenings on mental health, addiction history, domestic violence, and even a reference to attest to one’s character. A federal U.S. schema similar to Canada’s would likely keep tens of millions of guns out of the hands of ineligible gun owners: over 3 million ineligible people were denied gun purchase over the past two decades due to proper background checks, 35% of which were convicted felons (Matthews, 2014).

In 2019, guns were used in 73.7% of murders, 36.4% of robberies, and 27.6% of aggravated assaults. In class, we learned that the most effective way to deter violent crime may be to expand concealed carry regulations, or “shall issue” laws in which gun owners can obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon. The majority of states support concealed carry legislation (Wooten, 2021a). According to Lott and Mustard (1997), concealed handgun allowance is the most cost-effective crime reduction tactic, not only saving about 1,400 victims of murder, 4,200 rape victims, 60,000 aggravated assaults, and 11,900 armed robberies, but also saving $20.5 billion in victim costs (Lott & Mustard, 1997; Wooten, 2021b). We learned in class although overall crime may experience a substitution effect from violent crime to property crimes such as larceny and car theft, some argue that the value of less violent victimization and cost savings is certainly worth it. 

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Turning to injury and death rates at the state level, the state with the highest incidence of gun injury and death is Louisiana, with an impact rate of 37.1 per 100,000. The impact rate is defined as the sum of the number of deaths and injuries, weighted by the state population, and multiplied by a factor of 100,000 for comparability. Illinois has also demonstrated consistently high rates of gun violence relative to other states, ranking #2 in 2017 with 35.9 incidents per 100,000. This is likely due to gun violence in Chicago, particularly the city’s South Side neighborhoods, where gang violence and police violence are rampant (“Chicago Gun Violence,” 2020). Subsequent rates of high gun violence occurred in Delaware (31.04 per 100,000), Mississippi (31.68), and Alabama (28.72) (GVA, 2018; U.S. Census Bureau, 2021). Further, it appears that overall impact rates of gun violence in states with the highest annual incidents are on an uptick since 2014. For example, in 2014, the top 3 most dangerous states in terms of gun impact rates were Louisiana (29.84), Illinois (24.77), and Delaware (22.61). However, those same top 3 states in 2017 had much higher rates overall in comparison to their 2014 levels: 37.1 in Louisiana; 35.9 in Illinois; and 31.04 in Delaware. This means that the most dangerous states became about 25% - 45% more dangerous over the past few years.

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In Pennsylvania specifically, the impact of gun violence sits about the middle of the road relative to all 50 states, and hovers around the national average. In 2017, the national rate of death from gun use was about 12 per 100,000 whereas in PA it was 11.72 per 100,000 (Howard, 2018; Giffords Law Center, 2020a). According to the Giffords Law Center, Pennsylvania has made some improvements in recent years surrounding gun safety, but still has regulatory loopholes such as not requiring licensing for gun ownership, firearm safety training, universal background checks for non-hand guns, and not implementing restrictions on assault weapons (Giffords Law Center, 2020b). Pennsylvania is a shall issue state, and therefore provides concealed carry permits to all eligible gun owners over the age of 21. Pennsylvania also has generous open carry legislation, providing permits to gun owners over the age of 18, without any training requirements. PA does require background checks for all prospective handgun sales (Giffords Law Center, 2020b). Returning to gun impact in the state in 2017, 63% of gun deaths in Pennsylvania were suicides. Further, gun violence is most prevalent in Pennsylvania’s Black communities: a shocking 64% of homicide victims are Black men, despite them only accounting for 6% of the state population. Firearm violence is also heavily embedded in domestic abuse in the state, and there were 69 mass shootings between 2014 and 2018 (Center for American Progress, 2019).