Amidst the gun control debates, stats shine through
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Gun violence has become an ever-increasing topic for discussion, especially after considering a number of disconcerting statistics.
NBCNews.com said that more than 100,000 people are shot in the U.S. on average each year, according to "The Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence"
"Every day in the U.S., an average of 289 people are shot. Eighty-six of them die: 30 are murdered, 53 kill themselves, two die accidentally, and one is shot in a police intervention, the Brady Campaign reports."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that firearms kill 609 people in one week, 87 people each day and one person every 17 minutes. Additionally, the CDC, along with the U.S. Census Bureau, reported that 335,609 deaths have resulted from guns between 2000 and 2010.
Gun violence, particularly involving children, has also become a disconcerting issue in the wake of preceding tragedies. The CDC has reported that "more kids ages 0-19 died from firearms every three days in 2010 than died in the 2012 Newtown, Conn., massacre."
According to the CDC, Department of Defense and Federal Bureau of Investigation, more children were killed by firearms in 2010 than U.S. soldiers injured in Afghanistan or law enforcement officers killed by guns. In the same year, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention added that half of all juvenile murders involved firearms.
The FBI noted that handguns accounted for 72.5 percent of guns cases involving murder and non-negligent incidents, shotguns and rifles comprised 7.9 percent, and 18.5 percent were unspecified in 2011.
