US Gun Violence: One in Five Americans has Lost a Family Member Due to a Gun

By Staff, Agencies

A Kaiser Family Foundation study released Tuesday revealed that “One in five Americans admitted that they have a family member who has been killed with a gun.”

The survey highlights the widespread epidemic of gun violence in the country, with the foundation aiming to garner support for gun reform legislation, while the number of mass shootings in 2023 puts it on track to become the deadliest year in a decade.

 The number of gun-related deaths in the United States in 2020 hit 45,222, the most recent year for which complete data are available, according to the Centers for Disease Control. That is 124 deaths per day, which marks a sharp increase compared to previous years. These deaths are mainly due to homicides [almost 5,000] and suicides [6,666], in line with broader trends from previous years. There have been 146 mass shootings in 2023 so far, far more than this time of year for each of the past two years.

A recent slate of mass shootings, including Monday's shooting at a bank in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, has reignited the long-running debate about gun violence in the United States. This year alone, mass shootings have already claimed the lives of more than 200 people in almost 150 incidents, according to Gun Violence Archive. The assessment, which excludes the perpetrator and does not consider the injuries of hundreds of survivors, largely underestimates the scale of the epidemic of armed violence in the country.

Guns are now the leading cause of death of children and adolescents in the United States, surpassing traffic accidents in 2020, and although mass shootings dominate public discourse, the majority of gun deaths come from their use in many suicides and homicides.

Political efforts to curb gun deaths are extremely timid and woefully ineffective, according to the study. In addition, the authors of the research noted that the issue is intensely partisan, and no political consensus has been reached in order to legislate on the subject at the federal level.

The study points out that the question is so intractable that polls suggest that a significant minority of Americans [just under half], mostly Republicans, believe mass shootings are simply normal to live with in a free society.

The United States is an exception in the world, with gun death rates often tens of times higher than other countries such as France, Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom. The phenomenon of mass murders in schools, churches or shopping malls has no equivalent anywhere else. Access to firearms for US citizens is much easier than in other countries due to the interpretation of the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.