Gun Violence Facts: In the Home
- There are more than 393 million guns in circulation in the United States — approximately 120.5 guns for every 100 people.
- 1.7 million children live with unlocked, loaded guns - 1 out of 3 homes with kids have guns.
- In 2015, 2,824 children (age 0 to 19 years) died by gunshot and an additional 13,723 were injured.
- An emergency department visit for non-fatal assault injury places a youth at 40 percent higher risk for subsequent firearm injury.
- Those people that die from accidental shooting were more than three times as likely to have had a firearm in their home as those in the control group.
- Among children, the majority (89%) of unintentional shooting deaths occur in the home. Most of these deaths occur when children are playing with a loaded gun in their parent’s absence.
- People who report “firearm access” are at twice the risk of homicide and more than three times the risk of suicide compared to those who do not own or have access to firearms.
- Suicide rates are much higher in states with higher rates of gun ownership, even after controlling for differences among states for poverty, urbanization, unemployment, mental illness, and alcohol or drug abuse.
- Among suicide victims requiring hospital treatment, suicide attempts with a firearm are much more deadly than attempts by jumping or drug poisoning — 90 percent die compared to 34 percent and 2 percent respectively. About 90 percent of those that survive a suicide attempt do not go on to die by suicide.
- States implementing universal background checks and mandatory waiting periods prior to the purchase of a firearm show lower rates of suicides than states without this legislation.
- In states with increased gun availability, death rates from gunshots for children were higher than in states with less availability.
- The vast majority of accidental firearm deaths among children are related to child access to firearms — either self-inflicted or at the hands of another child.
- Studies have shown that states with Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws laws have a lower rate of unintentional death than states without CAP laws.
- Domestic violence is more likely to turn deadly with a gun in the home. An abusive partner’s access to a firearm increases the risk of homicide eight-fold for women in physically abusive relationships.