Firearms Statistics

I've just heard and read where people are saying that this horrific action in Orlando, Florida is all the fault of firearms laws. I can't agree and suspect that people are thinking with their hearts instead of their minds to even have such statements come out of their mouths. Such statements defy logic. It was a horrific act perhaps fueled by religious fundamentalism, poor education or outright ignorance but it was committed by, and therefore the fault of a person.
However for those wishing the proper firearms information as collected by EVERY group that does collect ALL the information, here are the statistics.

Firearm statistics from 2012

In the US Guns are used 80 times more often to protect a life than to take one. This is comparing self defence against suicide, homicide and accident combined.

There are approximately 270 million privately owned firearms in the USA

Each year in the USA a gun is used about 200 thousand times by a woman to avoid sexual abuse.

3 out of 5 felons say they will not mess with an armed person.

Gun ownership rate per 100 residents

USA            88.8

Yemen         54.8

Switzerland  45.7

Finland        45.3

Highest Homicide rates per 100 thousand residents

Honduras              91.6

El Salvador            69.2

Côte d'Ivoire         56.9

Jamaica                 52.2

The USA is way down this list at #103 with 4.8 per 100 thousand.

A recent study published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy concluded that there is a negative correlation between gun ownership and violent crime in countries internationally (more guns = less crime).

Nations with strict gun control laws have substantially higher murder rates than those who do not in general. In fact, the 9 European nations with the lowest gun ownership rate have a combined murder rate 3x that of the 9 European nations with the highest gun ownership rate!

In the UK where handgun ownership is illegal, there have been 2034 violent crimes per 100 thousand versus the USA where there were 466 violent crimes per 100 thousand during the same period.

An analysis of FBI crime statistics reveals that those states which have adopted conceal carry laws have reduced

Murders by 8.5%

Rapes by 5%

Aggravated assaults by 7%

Robberies by 3%

With few exceptions, most public mass shootings in the USA since 1950 have taken place where citizens are banned from carrying guns. Despite strict gun regulations, Europe has had 3 of the worst 6 school shootings.

US Police                                      VS     US Armed Citizen

794,300                                             80,000,000 gun owning          
police officers13                                            citizens

 

11%                                                            2%error rate
error rate14

14.3                                                            2.3 average deaths
avg. deaths of a shooting                           of a shooting rampage
rampage stopped by police15                                                         stopped by citizens

606                                                             1,527
criminals killed each year                           criminals killed each year

In 1982, Kennesaw, Georgia passed a law requiring heads of households to keep at least one firearm in the house. The residential burglary rate subsequently dropped 89% in Kennesaw, compared to just 10.4% drop in Georgia as a whole

Today, the violent crime rate in Kennesaw is still 85% lower than Georgia's or the national average.