Gun violence worst in USA, Brazil

By Aimee Cunningham, 3:30pm, August 28, 2018:

The United States and Brazil top the list of nations with the most gun deaths

The first global analysis of firearm-related deaths tallies homicides, suicides and accidents

Gun deaths occur worldwide, but a new survey reveals the hot spots for those that occur outside of war zones.

In 2016, firearm-related homicides, suicides and accidental deaths were concentrated in just six countries: the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Guatemala. Those nations accounted for about half of the estimated number of gun deaths unrelated to armed conflict.

That’s just one takeaway from the first look at the global impact of interpersonal and self-inflicted gun violence on public health, published online August 28 in JAMA. Here’s the big picture:

Total global gun deaths rose from 1990 to 2016

Worldwide, an estimated 251,000 people died from guns due to homicide, suicide or unintentional injury in 2016. That’s up from an estimated 209,000 such firearm deaths in 1990, the team found by analyzing data from 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2016.

In 2016, 64 percent of gun-related deaths were homicides, 27 percent were suicides and 9 percent were accidental deaths.

… Globally, for every year studied save one, gun deaths due to homicide, suicide and unintentional injury exceeded those due to conflict and terrorism. The exception: 1994, the year of the Rwandan genocide.

The United States and Brazil are hot spots of gun violence

These two countries accounted for 32 percent of the total number of estimated deaths in 2016.  …

Suicide rates have risen across the United States since 1999 (SN: 7/7/18, p. 13). Previous research has shown that having guns in the house is linked to higher use of the weapons to commit suicide and to a larger number of unintentional gun-related deaths.

USA: In 2015, toddlers [playing with their parents’ guns] shot and killed more Americans than terrorists: here.