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On Wednesday, up to three shooters opened fire at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. This tragic event, which has resulted in up to 14 people dead and 21 more injured, has caused many Americans to look into U.S. gun statistics. And for those looking to find some sort of comfort, they will come up empty handed.
The statistics from the San Bernardino shooting should be enough to shock legislators into improving gun control. This is the 25th mass shooting in California and 353rd mass shooting in the United States in 2015. This means, on some days, Americans suffered through multiple shootings in one day. It's also worth noting that California has some of the strictest gun laws in the United States, proving that more needs to be done to protect Americans from gun violence.
But it's not only numbers from today's incident in California that we should be paying attention to. There are statistics that span over several years and decades that prove there is a serious gun control problem in the United States. Here are five of the most mind-blowing U.S. gun statistics that prove we need to take action against gun violence and for better gun control.
1
America Had More Gun Homicides In 2012 Than Canada And Any European Countries
In 2012, the United States had 26.7 million gun homicides. That's six times as many as Canada and three times as many as Switzerland (whcih has the second highest number.)
2
America Has Almost Half Of The World's Civilian-Owned Guns
Yet, America only has 4.4 percent of the world's population, meaning most people own multilpe fire arms.
4
There Have Been More Than 1,040 Mass Shootings In The U.S. Since 2012
There have been 352 mass shootings in 2015 alone, but only 336 days.
5
There's A Correlation Between Number Of Guns Owned And Number Of Shootings
Perhaps these staggering statistics, paired with the tragic events in San Bernardino, will serve as a reminder to US legislators that there needs to be more change when it comes to gun control.
Images: singha103/Fotolia
