Gun violence

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Gun-related violence is violence committed with the use of a firearm. Gun-related violence may or may not be considered criminal. Criminal violence includes homicide (except when and where ruled justifiable), assault with a deadly weapon, and suicide, or attempted suicide, depending on jurisdiction. Non-criminal violence includes accidental or unintentional injury and death (except perhaps in cases of criminal negligence). Also generally included in gun violence statistics are military or para-military activities.

According to GunPolicy.org, 75 percent of the world's 875 million guns are civilian controlled.^{[2][better source needed]} Roughly half of these guns (48 percent) are in the United States, which has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world.^[3] Globally, millions are wounded or killed by the use of guns.^[2] Assault by firearm resulted in 180,000 deaths in 2013, up from 128,000 deaths in 1990.^[4] There were additionally 47,000 unintentional firearm-related deaths in 2013.^[4]

Levels of gun-related violence vary greatly among geographical regions, countries, and even sub-nationally.^[5] Rates of violent deaths by firearm range from as low as 0.03 and 0.04 per 100,000 population in Singapore and Japan, to 59 and 67 per 100,000 in Honduras and Venezuela.^[6] The highest rates of violent deaths by firearm in the world occur in low-income South and Central American countries such as Honduras, Venezuela, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Brazil and Jamaica.^[6]

The United States has the 11th highest rate of gun violence in the world and a gun homicide rate which is 25 times higher than the average respective rates of other high income nations.^[7][8] The United States has a total rate of firearms death which is many times higher than that of similarly developed nations with strict gun control laws, such as Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Korea.^[8] Nearly all studies have found a positive correlation between gun ownership and gun-related homicide and suicide rates.^{[9][10]: 29 [11]}

According to the United Nations, small arms account for roughly half of the weapons used to kill people,^[12] and more people die each year from gun-related violence than did in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.^[13] The global death toll from use of guns may be as high as 1,000 dead each day.^[13]