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San Bernardino shooting: Statistics behind US gun violence Guns in the US: The statistics behind the violence
(about 1 month later)
For the 17th time since he was sworn in as US president, Barack Obama attempted on Thursday to make some sense of an act of mass gun violence. In his first weekly address of 2016, Barack Obama vowed to take executive action to increase background checks on gun buyers.
It's the third time he has addressed the issue since the start of October, when nine people were killed and seven injured in a shooting at an Oregon school. His announcement followed another bloody year in the US in which thousands were killed and tens of thousands wounded by gunfire.
The 16th time of his presidency was last week after three people were killed and nine wounded at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs. Here's a look at some of the statistics behind the violence.
This time the setting was a public health centre in San Bernardino, California. Sixteen people died, including the assailants, and 17 more were wounded.
The statisticsThe statistics
Mass shootings: The attack in San Bernardino was the 353rd mass shooting this year. A mass shooting is defined as a single shooting, which kills or injures four or more people, including the assailant. Mass shootings: There were 372 mass shootings in the US in 2015, killing 475 people and wounding 1,870, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker, which catalogues such incidents. A mass shooting is defined as a single shooting incident which kills or injures four or more people, including the assailant.
Source: Mass Shooting TrackerSource: Mass Shooting Tracker
School shootings: There have been 62 school shootings so far in 2015, and 161 since the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut on 14 December 2012 - although those figures include occasions when a gun was fired but no-one was hurt. School shootings: There were 64 school shootings in 2015, according to a dedicated campaign group set up in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school massacre in Massachusetts in 2012. Those figures include occasions when a gun was fired but no-one was hurt.
Source: Everytown Research Source: Everytown for Gun SafetyResearch
All shootings: The school shootings and other mass shootings generate the headlines, but the vast majority of gun deaths in the US occur in smaller, often unreported incidents. Some 12,223 people have been killed in the US by firearms so far this year, and 24,722 people injured. All shootings: Some 13,286 people were killed in the US by firearms in 2015, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and 26,819 people were injured. Those figures are likely to rise by several hundred, once incidents in the final week of the year are counted.
Source: Gun Violence Archive,Source: Gun Violence Archive,
How the US compares: The number of per capita gun murders in the US in 2012 - the most recent year for comparable statistics - was nearly 30 times that in the UK, at 2.9 per 100,000 compared with just 0.1. How the US compares: The number of gun murders per capita in the US in 2012 - the most recent year for comparable statistics - was nearly 30 times that in the UK, at 2.9 per 100,000 compared with just 0.1.
Of all the murders in the US in 2012, 60% were by firearm compared with 31% in Canada, 18.2% in Australia, and just 10% in the UK.Of all the murders in the US in 2012, 60% were by firearm compared with 31% in Canada, 18.2% in Australia, and just 10% in the UK.
Source: UNODC.Source: UNODC.
The home front: So many people die annually from gunfire in the US that the death toll between 1968 and 2011 eclipses all wars ever fought by the country. According to research by Politifact, there were about 1.4 million firearm deaths in that period, compared with 1.2 million US deaths in every conflict from the Revolutionary War to Iraq. The home front: So many people die annually from gunfire in the US that the death toll between 1968 and 2011 eclipses all wars ever fought by the country. According to research by Politifact, there were about 1.4 million firearm deaths in that period, compared with 1.2 million US deaths in every conflict from the War of Independence to Iraq.
Source: Politifact.Source: Politifact.
Total number of guns: No official figure exists for the number of guns in the US but there are thought to be about 300 million, concentrated in the hands of about a third of the population. That is nearly enough guns for every man, woman and child in the country. Total number of guns: No official figure exists but there are thought to be about 300 million in the US, held by about a third of the population. That is nearly enough guns for every man, woman and child in the country.
The NRA: The right for citizens to own those guns is protected by the Second Amendment to the US Constitution and fiercely defended by lobby groups such as the National Rifle Association, which boasted that its membership surged to around five million in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting. The NRA: The right to own guns is regarded by many as enshrined in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, and fiercely defended by lobby groups such as the National Rifle Association, which boasted that its membership surged to around five million in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting.
Gun violence and terrorism: The US spends more than a trillion dollars per year defending itself against terrorism, which kills a tiny fraction of the number of people killed by ordinary gun crime.Gun violence and terrorism: The US spends more than a trillion dollars per year defending itself against terrorism, which kills a tiny fraction of the number of people killed by ordinary gun crime.
According to figures from the US Department of Justice and the Council on Foreign Affairs, 11,385 people died on average annually in firearm incidents in the US between 2001 and 2011.According to figures from the US Department of Justice and the Council on Foreign Affairs, 11,385 people died on average annually in firearm incidents in the US between 2001 and 2011.
In the same period, an average of 517 people were killed annually in terrorism-related incidents. Removing 2001, when 9/11 occurred, from the calculation produces an annual average of just 31. In the same period, an average of 517 people were killed annually in terror-related incidents. Removing 2001, when 9/11 occurred, from the calculation produces an annual average of just 31.