Gun Violence: Problem, Solution and Alternatives

Running head: GUN VIOLENCE
Gun Violence
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1GUN VIOLENCE
Introduction:
Gun Violence can be understood as any form of violence that is committed using a
gun and it may or may not be criminal in nature. Criminal gun violence includes incidents
such as homicide, assault with deadly weapon and suicide (Malina p175; David and Shah
p84). In United States of America, gun ownership has been a constitutional right for all its
citizens which according to many are one of the biggest reasons for gun violence in USA
(Kalesan et al. p 217.).
Discussion:
-Problem:
According to a CNN report, more people gets killed in USA as a result of gun
violence compared to any other high income country worldwide and caused 1800 fatalities as
of 2018. The report also showed that about 48% (of 650 million) of the total civilian owned
guns around the world are owned by Americans. Similarly the per capita gun ownership in
America (89 firearms per 100 people) is also higher than any other country, followed by
Yemen (at 55 firearms per 100 people). Even though the population of US makes up less than
5% of the world population, 31% (or 90) of the mass shooters are Americans. The rates of
gun related homicides are also 25.2 times higher in US compared to any other high income
countries with 36 cases of homicide and 66 cases on unintentional deaths per 1 million people
followed by Finland with 3 cases of homicide per 1 million. These statistics clearly shows
how the problem of gun violence have reached an acute stage in America and have far
outpaced the rates of gun violence in any other high income nations in the world (Fox;
bbc.com).

2GUN VIOLENCE
(Figure 1: Rate of gun ownership by US citizens compared to the rest of the world. Source:
Fox)
(Figure 2: Per capita gun ownership in US compared to other countries. Source: Fox)