Thread by @therealpatgreen

America's Unique Gun Control Problem, a thread. This data is courtesy of a @voxdotcom article last updated in November 2018. Many of you won't take the time to click on a link, so I am going to Tweet each disgusting stat. Here's the link if you prefer it: vox.com/policy-and-pol…

Stat #1- Homicide by firearm per 1 million people:
1.) USA (29.7)
2.) Switzerland (7.7)
... Canda (5.1)
... Germany (1.9)
... New Zealand (1.6)
... Australia (1.4)
SOURCE: 2012 Human Development Index

Stat #2- America has 4.4% of the world's population, but almost half of civilian-owned guns around the world (42%).
SOURCE: UNODC, Small Arms Survey, The Guardian

Stat #3- There have been more than 1,600 mass shootings since Sandy Hook in the United States. Remember, this is as of when the article was written in 2018. Mass shooting defined as where 4+ people were shot at.
SOURCE: Gun Violence Archive

Stat #4- On average, there's around one mass shooting for each day in America. In other words, there's never a good time to talk about it, so today's as good as any.
SOURCE: Mass Shooting Tracker

Stat #5- States with more guns have more gun deaths. This one needs a chart.

Stat #6- It's not just in the USA. Developed countries with more guns also have more gun deaths.

Stat #7- America's an outlier when it comes to gun deaths, but not overall crime. Violent crime average is 6.3%; USA is at 5.5%. In other words, America doesn't have a crime problem; it has a firearm problem.
SOURCE: Jeffrey Swanson, International Crime Victims Survey, Gallup.

Stat #8- States with tighter gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths.

Stat #9- Gun homicides (like all homicides) have declined over past couple decades. Harvard School of Public Health's Injury Control Center has debunked the idea that more guns have led to the decline in gun homicides.
SOURCE: PEW Research Center

Stat #10- Most gun deaths are suicide: lot of research shows greater access to guns dramatically increases risk of suicide.
SOURCE: CDC

Stat #11- The states with the most guns report the most suicides and the gap is huge.
SOURCE: Guns and Suicide in the United States

Stat #12- Guns allow people to kill themselves much more easily.

Stat #13- Policies that limit access to guns have decreased suicides.

Stat #14- In states with more guns, more police officers are also killed on duty. The gap is also huge.
SOURCE: "Firearm Prevalence and Homicides of Law Enforcement Officers in the United States"

Stat #15- Despite all of this, the support for gun ownership has actually sharply increased since the early 2000's.
SOURCE: Pew Research Center

Stat #16- High-profile shooting doesn't lead to more support for gun control long-term, which is devastating and disgusting.
SOURCE: Pew Research Center

Stat #17- Finally, specific gun-control policies are fairly popular. This includes background checks, preventing mentally ill from obtaining guns, banning assault-style weapons, creating a fed database to track gun ownership & banning high-capacity magazines.

Thanks @voxdotcom and, specifically, author German Lopez for this piece. All of these stats are from them. The gun problem America is overwhelming and specific to this country. There is a consensus on most common sense gun-control solutions. So, let's work on those.

Our North Carolina senators, @SenThomTillis & @SenatorBurr, need to hear our voices. In an NRA-controlled Senate, they need to know their people are angry and fed up. We will not wait for another #Parkland or #UNCC to happen to talk about this.

Here's Tillis' Washington DC office #: [phone]
Here's Burr's Washington DC office #: [phone]

Lastly, please remember the names: Riley Howell and Ellis "Reed" Parlier. Two wonderfully talented fellow #UNCC students whose lives were incomprehensibly cut short by a disgusting act of gun violence.

And send your thoughts and prayers to their loved ones. Also, do the same for the Drew Pescaro, Sean Dehart, Rami Al-Ramadhan and Emily Houpt who were injured in the senseless act of terror. Thoughts & prayers are not enough, though. We DEMAND action.