Over 1 million people in US have been killed by firearms over past 30 years, data shows

[Initech]

Gun-related deaths in the United States are the highest they have ever been in nearly 30 years, new research shows.

The findings of a new study published in JAMA Network Open on Tuesday show that 1,110,421 people have been killed both intentionally and accidentally by a firearm between 1990 and 2021.

“That is roughly the number of people who have died from COVID in the last couple of years,” said Boston Children’s Hospital doctor Eric Fleegler, one of the authors of the study. 

Findings show that firearm deaths reached a low in 2004 of about 10 for every 100,000 people in the U.S.

But that rate began to climb back up in 2010, eventually increasing by 45.5 percent to 14.7 firearm deaths per 100,000 people in 2021.

The study’s findings show that there was an “incredible leap” in gun-related deaths during the first two years of the pandemic. In 2020 and 2021 there was a 25 percent increase in firearm deaths in the United States, a number that Fleegler said “almost defied imagination.”
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/campaigns/3754611-over-1-million-people-in-us-have-been-killed-by-firearms-over-past-30-years-data-show/

Some pretty alarming facts in this article. How many more people have to die before we start calling it a genocide?

[NoMoreRepugs]

1. Well shit - there's only one answer to this - MORE GUNS!!

[applegrove]

2. .

[patphil]

3. Average of 35,820 people killed each year for 31 years.

And how many more are injured?
I can't imagine the cost to the nation in terms of human misery for all of this.
But we need unlimited access to guns!
The price of Freedumb is quite high; and yet we are willing to pay it every year.

Guns are a virus that fuels a never ending American epidemic of violence, bloodshed, and death.

[Initech]

4. Not to mention the entire country is living in fear of getting shot.

The thing that drives me nuts about this country is that we go through the same damn arguments every time there's a mass shooting because our idiot politicians are too chicken shit to stand up to the bully organization known as the NRA out of fear of losing their jobs. And then the right wing goes on Fox News to complain when any sensible gun legislation is even thought about, and nothing gets done, and they actually make it worse. It's madness.

[patphil]

18. Thoughts and prayers, followed by "this is not the time to talk about gun laws" BS.

What they really mean is they don't give a shit, and don't you dare touch my guns.

[Initech]

19. Yup. It's the circle of death and it screws us all.

[RockRaven]

5. 1M Americans died of Covid in 2 year and cons/Repukes behaved like malicious saboteurs there too

so there is no fucking hope when it comes to guns except to vote them all out persistently. It will take a generation or two of denying them power to make any progress on guns -- because of the radical right wing activists currently infesting the judiciary standing in the way of safety and prevention measures which do get passed.

[Kid Berwyn]

6. Glad to see data largely missing from public record.

Wonder why that is?

[EX500rider]

7. Well that's murders and suicides added together, usually reported separately. nt

[Kid Berwyn]

9. No, I refer to zero federal funding for gun violence research.

The Dickey Amendment

For more than 20 years, Congress has deterred federal funding for gun violence research by including a provision known as the Dickey Amendment in annual appropriations legislation. The provision prohibits the use of federal funds to advocate or promote gun control.

Continues…

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5993413/

[EX500rider]

11. That bill doesn't prevent research

Prevents advocating.

[Kid Berwyn]

14. It prohibits federal funding for research into gun violence & gun control.

Gun violence research: History of the federal funding freeze

https://www.apa.org/science/about/psa/2013/02/gun-violence

Snip…

On Jan. 16, President Barack Obama released his national plan for addressing gun violence. Highlighted on the first page the executive summary (PDF, 332KB) is the initiative to “end the freeze on gun violence research.” In a fact sheet (PDF, 350KB) supplementing the plan, the White House provided the following background and strategy details:

There are approximately 30,000 firearm-related homicides and suicides a year, a number large enough to make clear this is a public health crisis. But for years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and other scientific agencies have been barred by Congress from using funds to “advocate or promote gun control,” and some members of Congress have claimed this prohibition also bans the CDC from conducting any research on the causes of gun violence. However, research on gun violence is not advocacy; it is critical public health research that gives all Americans information they need.

Conduct research on the causes and prevention of gun violence, including links between video games, media images and violence: The president is issuing a Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control and scientific agencies to conduct research into the causes and prevention of gun violence. It is based on legal analysis that concludes such research is not prohibited by any appropriations language. The CDC will start immediately by assessing existing strategies for preventing gun violence and identifying the most pressing research questions, with the greatest potential public health impact. And the Administration is calling on Congress to provide $10 million for the CDC to conduct further research, including investigating the relationship between video games, media images and violence.

Better understand how and when firearms are used in violent death: To research gun violence prevention, we also need better data. When firearms are used in homicides or suicides, the National Violent Death Reporting System collects anonymous data, including the type of firearm used, whether the firearm was stored loaded or locked, and details on youth gun access. Congress should invest an additional $20 million to expand this system from the 18 states currently participating to all 50 states, helping Americans better understand how and when firearms are used in a violent death and informing future research and prevention strategies.

[EX500rider]

16. Again the bill does not prevent research

It prevents advocacy

[Kid Berwyn]

17. It prevents federal funds use for gun violence research...

…If it promotes gun control.

So, it prevents federal research into gun control.

Gun control really would stop gun nuts from killing people with guns.

Wish there was research to back that up.

[EX500rider]

21. And again does not prevent the research, just no advocacy at the Dept level

The upper level govt can promote what ever polices they see fit.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

8. The single biggest thing we could do to cut down on deaths by guns overnight

Is to make humane, assisted suicide LEGAL.

These numbers are atrocious obviously but I'd wager over 1/2 are suicides. And I'd bet at least half of those are due to health diagnoses that people simply don't want to live through. They don't want to go through dying of what's killing them or is likely to kill them.

The next biggest thing we could do is provide universal health care for all citizens. That way, people have some hope that they won't be bankrupted by medical bills.

Yes the violence part is terrible and there's far too much of it, but in terms of sheer numbers ... the majority of gun deaths come from people offing themselves with guns, because ... guns work, they're cheap, and they're easy to get.

[EX500rider]

12. No more like 2/3 to 3/4 are suicides. Nt

[Irish_Dem]

10. The GOP sees this as a suitable sacrifice to the Gun God and sacred 2A.

[malaise]

13. The Slobfather alone killed as many from Covid

in two years.

[Kaleva]

15. I don't think gun control was a major issue this past election

It wasn't in Michigan where abortion and voting rights were the top issues.

[SYFROYH]

20. I'm not sure calling it genocide will help at all.

I'm interested in explanations for the decline in gun-related deaths in the 1990s and the rise in the 2010s.

Gun sales have been increasing through the decline and rise so I don't think it's just a matter of more guns.