Gun Violence By The Numbers & What You Can Do

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  City deals with 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.
• More than a dozen people dead in Newtown CT elementary school.

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:

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