Gun Control Debate Resurfaces In US As Homicides Reach Record High In Recent Past

45,222 people died from gun-related injuries in the US in 2020 out of which 54 per cent deaths were suicides and the remaining 43 per cent murders.

(Representative Image/ Getty)

New Delhi: Gun death rate in world's oldest democracy the United States of America has reached to a record high with numbers much higher than in most other nations, particularly developed countries. In a recent gum homicide incident, 21 people - 18 children and three adults - were killed at a Texas elementary school on May 24. This was second mass shooting event in America in the last 10 days and eighth in 2022.

45,222 people died from gun-related injuries in the US in 2020 out of which 54 per cent deaths were suicides and the remaining 43 per cent murders, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention report stated.

According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, gun death rate in United States in 2016 was 10.6 per one lakh people. Statics in France is 2.7 per cent one lakh people, 2.1 per one lakh people in Canada and 1 per one lakh people in Australia.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) found an increase in active shooter incidents between 2000 and 2020. There were three such incidents in the year 2000, but by the figure rose to 40 by 2020.

Another report by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that gun homicides in the US reached their highest level in more than 25 years during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Homicides from guns rose 35% during the first year of the pandemic to the highest level since 1994, according to a CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly report published earlier this week.

It is also noteworthy that American taxpayers pay a daily average of $34.8 million (Rs. 271 crore) for medical care, first responders, ambulances, police, and criminal justice services related to gun violence, Everytown Research & Policy stated.

The rise in gun-related deaths has surged in the US largely due to country's weak arms legislations. Country's Supreme Court has interpreted to allow individuals to keep handguns at home for self-defense. 

The number of lisenced guns issued in America in 2018 was 39 crore, more than country's population that was 33 crore in the same year.

US President Biden has played a central role in the unsuccessful efforts to enact significant gun control legislation. After the 2019 mass shooting incident, then-President Donald Trump said after mass shootings that he wanted the country to have stricter gun laws.

Even former President Barack Obama did not push for gun control measures even after the fatal mass shootings during his tenure. However, in 2013, proposed a long list of measures, including bans on assault weapons and armor-piercing bullets and a limit on the size of magazines.