Thread by @NPR

🧵As details of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, emerge, the debate over stricter gun control laws intensifies.

Take a look at these statistics that provide insight into the gun control debate in the United States. npr.org/2022/05/27/110…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data notes that just over 100 people, on average, are killed by firearms in the U.S. every day. n.pr/3Gpeymw

Sandy Hook Promise, a group founded and led by families of victims of that shooting, estimates that about 12 children die from gun violence each day in the United States.

Gun laws in the country have gone virtually unchanged since that time. n.pr/3z2bCKW

There have been 27 school shootings this year. There have been 119 school shootings since 2018, when Education Week began tracking such incidents. The highest number of shootings, 34, occurred last year. n.pr/3wRxreU

"Keeping guns away from young people, whether through safe storage of firearms in a home or age restrictions on purchasing, would be expected to have a protective effect," says Daniel Webster, from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions. n.pr/3wW4Ljw

The National Rifle Association estimates there are some eight million AR-15s and its variations in circulation, and says they are so popular that the "AR" should stand for "America's Rifle." n.pr/3NHAyf6

Firearms are a main focus of suicide prevention efforts because they are more efficiently lethal than other methods. Nine in 10 people who attempt suicide with a gun will die. n.pr/3wTPCjX

A staggering 98% of these mass shooting crimes have been committed by men, according to The Violence Project, a nonpartisan research group that tracks U.S. mass shooting data dating back to 1966. n.pr/3wMm4n2

Solid majorities of both gun owners and non-owners favor limiting access to guns for people with mental illnesses and individuals who are on the federal no-fly or watch lists. n.pr/3wWCWaL

Strong majorities favor background checks for private sales and at gun shows (77% among gun owners and 87% among non-owners). n.pr/3wWCWaL

In 2020, 54% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (24,292), while 43% were murders (19,384), according to the CDC. n.pr/3wX3FnG

Nearly eight-in-ten (79%) U.S. murders in 2020 – 19,384 out of 24,576 – involved a firearm. That marked the highest percentage since at least 1968, the earliest year for which the CDC has online records. n.pr/38N1wTP

Researchers at Harvard recently found that people defended themselves with their guns in less than one percent of violent crimes. n.pr/3N1e9cz