Facts and Statistics

· There are more guns in the United States today than in any other modern industrialized country. At last count, there were roughly 200 million firearms in private hands in the U.S.- almost one for every American adult. (Douglass Wiebe, Annals of Emergency Medicine, June 2003, vol. 41, pp 771-782.)

· The firearm death rate in the U.S. for children 14 and younger is nearly 12 times higher than the combined rate in 25 other modern industrialized nations. (National Center for Injury Control & Prevention, 2003)

· While firearms are at times used by private citizens to kill criminals or stop crimes, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the most common scenario of gun use in America in 2001, the most recent final data available, are suicide (16,869), homicide (11,617) or fatal, unintentional injury (802). Guns kept in the home for self-protection are 22 times more likely to kill a family member or friend than to kill an assailant in self-defense. (Kellerman, Journal, Trauma, 1998)

· Gun violence costs Americans about $100 billion annually in direct health-care expenditures, lost productivity, personal efforts to manage risk, expenditures for prevention by public agencies, and a general reduction in society's quality of life. (Cook and Ludwig, Gun Violence: The Real Costs, 2000)

· Guns are the only U.S. product (other than tobacco) exempt from Federal Safety oversight. Toy guns and teddy bears are regulated- real guns are not. (Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 2003)

· North Carolina is the 5th leading source for crime handguns recovered in other states. (Columbia University School of Public Health, 2003)

· Over 1,000 North Carolinians die every year from gun violence. Total deaths for the year 2005 were 1126 adults and children. (Office of the NC Chief Medical Examiner, 2006)

· In 2005 (the latest figures available), approximately every six days a North Carolina child seventeen or younger was killed by a gun in a homicide, suicide, or unintentional shooting. (NC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, 2006)

· North Carolina is 9th highest in the number of men killing women, usually women they know and usually with a gun. (Violence Policy Center, 2004)

· In 2004, 48 of 81 (59%) domestic violence victims in North Carolina were killed with guns.