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Gun violence defined literally means the use of a firearm to threaten or inflict violence or harm. Gun violence may be broadly defined as a category of violence and crime committed with the use of a firearm; it may or may not include actions ruled as self-defense, actions for law enforcement, or the safe lawful use of firearms for sport, hunting, and target practice. Gun violence encompasses intentional crime characterized as homicide (although not all homicide is automatically a crime) and assault with a deadly weapon, as well as unintentional injury and death resulting from the misuse of firearms, sometimes by children and adolescents. Gun violence statistics also may include self-inflicted gunshot wounds (both suicide, attempted suicide and suicide/homicide combinations sometimes seen within families).

The phrase "gun violence" has been criticized as conveying policy bias, as it de-emphasizes the role of the criminal in violent attack, and instead emphasizes his chosen tool; it is not clear, by analogy, that the discussion of vehicular homicide would be advanced by the term, "automobile violence." By contrast, the phrase "gun crime" is consistently used by both gun-control and gun-rights policy advocates, though with differing emphases: the former group stresses goal to reduce gun violence through enacting and enforcing sensible regulations, while the latter group champions the need to remove criminals via increased prison terms or other methods.

Levels of gun violence vary greatly across the world, with very high rates in South Africa and Colombia, as well as high levels in Thailand, Guatemala, and some other developing countries. Levels of gun violence are low in Singapore, Chile, New Zealand, and many other countries. The United States has the highest rates among developed countries, which some attribute to the less-restrictive firearm laws in the U.S. compared to other developed countries.

Suicide

Some research shows an association between household firearm ownership and gun suicide rates, while other research found a statistical association among a group of 14 developed nations but that statistical association was lost when additional countries were included. During the 1980s and early 1990s, there was a strong upward trend in adolescent suicides with a gun, as well as a sharp overall increase in a suicides among those age 75 and over. In the United States, firearms remain the most common method of suicide, accounting for 52.1% of all suicides committed during 2005. Unlike in the U.S., suicide rates of suicides committed with guns in countries where firearms are uncommon are similarly uncommon, with other methods typically being used to commit suicides.

Research also indicates no association vis-à-vis safe-storage laws of guns that are owned, and gun suicide rates, and studies that attempt to link gun ownership to likely victimology often fail to account for the presence of guns owned by other people leading to a conclusion that safe-storage laws do not appear to affect gun suicide rates or juvenile accidental gun death.

Homicides by country

The homicide statistics listed below are for "intentional homicide", which is "death deliberately inflicted on a person by another person", including justifiable homicide and criminal homicide.

Caution is advised in reading the table. The statistics cannot take into account the differences that exist between the legal definitions of offences in various countries, of the different methods of tallying, etc. In particular, to use the figures as a basis for comparison between different countries is highly problematic as is comparing data from different years among different countries.

Association with Urban Areas

Gun violence may vary enormously within a country. Within the United States, for example the cities tend to have higher gun crime rates than the rural areas despite lower gun ownership concentrations. Detroit has 47.3 murders per every 100,000 residents though New York was considered one of the safest cities in 2008. Still, a report from 1992 states 20 percent of U.S. homicides occurred in four cities with just 6% of the population – New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, D.C. In contrast, some areas have widespread gun ownership with low rates of homicide. In 2005, Wyoming had the highest number of homes with loaded and unlocked guns, at 33% of all homes in the state, of any state in the United States and had a homicide rate of 1.7 of every 100,000.

See also

• Castle Doctrine
• Duty to retreat
• Shall Issue Concealed Carry
• Gun violence in the United States

References

1. Carter, Gregg Lee (2002). Guns in American society: an encyclopedia of history, politics, culture, and the law. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. p. 262. ISBN 1-57607-268-1.
2. Theodore, Larissa (2008-03-29). "GUNS: A RIGHT OR A SOCIETAL ILL?". Beaver County Times and Allegheny Times. Gun violence by definition is people breaking the law, and drugs are a huge part of it in inner cities...It's not the gun that is causing them to commit the act.
3. Courtesy link to archive.org copy of Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence: Statistics
4. Encyclopedia of Public Health: Gun Control
5. Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence: Kids and Gun Violence
6. "About us," Brady Center to Prevent Violence, undated
7. "Targeting Criminals, not Gun Owners," NRA-ILA; 8/17/06
8. ^ "The Seventh United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (1998 - 2000)" (PDF). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Retrieved 2006-11-08.
9. Cook, Philip J., Gun Violence: The Real Cost, Page 29. Oxford University Press, 2002
10. Committee on Law and Justice (2004). "Executive Summary". Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review. National Academy of Science.
11. Kellermann, A.L., F.P. Rivara, G. Somes; et al. (1992). "Suicide in the home in relation to gun ownership". New England Journal of Medicine. 327: pp. 467–472. PMID 1308093. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
12. Miller, Matthew and Hemenway, David (2001). Firearm Prevalence and the Risk of Suicide: A Review. Harvard Health Policy Review. p. 2. One study found a statistically significant relationship between gun ownership levels and suicide rate across 14 developed nations (e.g. where survey data on gun ownership levels were available), but the association lost its statistical significance when additional countries were included. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
13. Cook, Philip J., Jens Ludwig (2000). "Chapter 2". Gun Violence: The Real Costs. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513793-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
14. Ikeda, Robin M., Rachel Gorwitz, Stephen P. James, Kenneth E. Powell, James A. Mercy (1997). Fatal Firearm Injuries in the United States, 1962-1994: Violence Surveillance Summary Series, No. 3. National Center for Injury and Prevention Control.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
15. "Suicide in the U.S.A." (PDF). American Association of Suicidology.
16. Kleck, Gary (2004). "Measures of Gun Ownership Levels of Macro-Level Crime and Violence Research" (PDF). Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. 41: pp. 3–36. doi:10.1177/0022427803256229. NCJ 203876. Studies that attempt to link the gun ownership of individuals to their experiences as victims (e.g., Kellermann, et al. 1993) do not effectively determine how an individual's risk of victimization is affected by gun ownership by other people, especially those not living in the gun owner's own household. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
17. Lott, John, John E. Whitley (2001). "Safe-Storage Gun Laws: Accidental Deaths, Suicides, and Crime" (PDF). Journal of Law and Economics. 44(2): pp. 659–689. doi:10.1086/338346. It is frequently assumed that safe-storage laws reduce accidental gun deaths and total suicides. We find no support that safe-storage laws reduce either juvenile accidental gun deaths or suicides. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
18. "Questionnaire for the Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, covering the period 1998 - 2000" (PDF). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
19. The Seventh United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (1998 - 2000)
20. WISQARS Injury Mortality Reports, 1999 - 2005, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
21. Henry E. Schaffer, Don Kates and William B. Waters IV: Public Health Pot Shots--How the CDC succumbed to the Gun "Epidemic." Reason Magazine
22. Pro-Gun Groups & Anti-Gun Groups--Does Anti-Gun Researcher David Hemenway Have Something To Hide? NRA-ILA, 3/24/06
23. "The Seventh United Nations Survey on Crime Trends and the Operations of Criminal Justice Systems (1998 - 2000)". United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Retrieved 2008-06-19.
24. ^ 1999 figures; 2000 figures not available
25. 1998 figures; 1999 and 2000 figures not available
26. America's Most Murderous Cities. by David M. Ewalt, Forbes, 11.08.07.
27. New York scores well on report on safest cities
28. Reynolds, Morgan O. and Caruth, III, W.W. (1992). NCPA Policy Report No. 176: Myths About Gun Control. National Center for Policy Analysis. p. 7. ISBN 0-943802-99-7. 20 percent of U.S. homicides occur in four cities with just 6% of the population – New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Washington, D.C.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
29. D.C. Ranks Well in New Gun Report, WTOP.COM , September 6, 2005.
30. Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2009, Table 297.

• Misplaced Pages neutral point of view disputes from April 2009
• Crime by country
• Gun politics