The Medical State

Comparing Gun Deaths by Country: The United States Is in a Different World

A common misconception we hear is that the gun violence epidemic in the US is due to mental illness issues, not gun issues. 

Here is the data from 14 countries considered to be similar in terms of income, to eliminate poverty as a confounding variable. However, countries from the majority of continents are represented. Countries included are the US, Canada, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, UK, Spain, Israel, and Norway. As you’ll note, very similar prevalence of mental illness are reported among these countries. Mental illnesses here also include substance use disorders.

Indeed, the United States sits somewhere in the middle among the spread of mental illness prevalence, with a reported value of 16.93% of the population experiencing mental illness. Several other countries rank higher, including Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, and Ireland. However, when comparing gun deaths per 100,000 persons in each of the countries, the difference is quite stark. Only the United States has a rate higher than 2.5 per 100,000 individuals – and it is substantially higher, at a rate of 11.9 gun deaths per 100,000 individuals.

The United States has a population of 334 million, which is approximately 4% of the global population. However, the US accounts for 46% of the world’s civilian firearms. More than that, there are more guns than people in this country. There are approximately 400 million guns, compared to 334 million people, which means there are 120 guns for every 100 people in the US. There is an ease of access to guns in the United States that is not prevalent elsewhere in the world.

As a result, firearm-related deaths are impacted here in the US, including both for homicide and for suicide. Firearm access is a risk factor for homicide, both intentional and unintentional, because death by gun is more lethal, quicker, and irreversible than other methods. As discussed previously, mental illness is not a determinant for gun violence; because firearms are so lethal so quickly, homicide by firearm can be impacted by rash decision-making, behavioral disturbances, and other factors. While firearm-related homicide accounts for 54% of homicide globally, 79% of homicides in the US involve guns. Ease of access to firearms increase the number and proportion of homicides involving guns.

The same is true for suicide. When assessing suicide methods by case fatality rate (the proportion of suicide attempts that are completed), firearm suicide has the highest fatality rate; 82.5% of firearm suicide attempts lead to completed suicide. This has substantial implications. About 7% of those who attempt suicide eventually die by suicide even if the first attempt was unsuccessful. Thus, ease of access to a weapon that has such a high fatality rate increases the number and proportion of suicide deaths in the US. Reducing access to firearms can save lives.

Ease of access and the sheer number of guns in the US has significant implications for public health and death by firearm.

Sources:

https://worldpopulationreview.com/state…/guns-per-capita

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/…/means-matter/survival/…

https://www.pewresearch.org/…/what-the-data-says…/…

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/…/means…/case-fatality/…

https://www.unodc.org/…/data-and-analysis/gsh/Booklet1.pdf

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26551975/

https://academic.oup.com/epirev/article/38/1/140/2754868…

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm

https://worldpopulationreview.com/…/united-states…

Sagittal section of mouse cerebellum

By Dr. Aikaterini Segklia (Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Department of Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology)

Two neurons sensing each other and trying to connect

Two neurons sensing each other and trying to connect

Tissue Series

These pieces are made of Japanese mulberry paper and the gilded edges of old books. They are constructed by a technique of rolling and shaping narrow strips of paper called quilling or paper filigree. Quilling was first practiced by Renaissance nuns and monks who are said to have made artistic use of the gilded edges of worn out bibles, and later by 18th century ladies who made artistic use of lots of free time.

Brain MRI after half of it was removed from a 3-year old boy

“The brain is remarkably plastic,” said Dorit Kliemann, a cognitive neuroscientist at the California Institute of Technology, and the first author of the study. “It can compensate for dramatic loss of brain structure, and in some cases the remaining networks can support almost typical cognition.”