What's awful: America has a gun violence problem.
What's worse: We seem unable and unwilling to solve it.
In most countries, a mass murder like the shootings at Umpqua Community College would prompt calls for reform. According to reports as of 3:30 p.m., at least 10 people are dead and more than 20 others wounded.
But in America, the Oregon shooting has mostly been met with a collective shrug so far — a reminder of how comfortable we've let ourselves become with mass murder.
Gun violence is a public health problem, researchers have repeatedly warned. It's a story that I've written before, too.
But the discussion doesn't seem to move forward. And we keep finding ourselves in this position.
Here's what you need to know about gun deaths in America — and the key problems that we need to address.
1. Gun-related deaths in America wildly outpace our peer nations
At least 32,000 people per year are killed by guns in the United States. What's the actual number? We don't know. Not all gun-related deaths are reported. There's a continued mystery over the number of police-related shootings.
And given the "fear and funding shortfalls" that come with potentially upsetting the gun lobby, some researchers actively avoid studying gun violence, the Washington Post reports. Even though there's growing consensus that gun violence is a public health problem.
Looking at independent analysis compiled by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the United States is an outlier for all the wrong reasons. Compared to every one of our peer nations (and including the three countries that are highlighted below), we're much more likely to be murdered by a gun.
Here's what researchers say we need: More data and research, led by CDC, to fully understand the scope of the problem.
Also see: Jeb Bush Says 'Stuff Happens,' But His Own Examples Prove We Can Prevent It
2. More people now die by guns than by cars
We heavily regulate automobiles, which makes sense: Passengers and pedestrians die every day from auto accidents.
We don't bring as much scrutiny to guns — even though there's evidence that they now kill more young Americans than cars do.
That data's drawn from a 2014 Center for American Progress report, which found that while motor vehicle-related deaths are on the decline in the United States, we've made practically no recent progress in reducing gun-related deaths.
"Overall, the CDC numbers indicate that gun deaths are trending somewhat upward as motor vehicle deaths continue on a steady decline, thanks in large measure to serious government safety regulation aimed at reducing fatalities and injuries that is notably missing in the sphere of firearms," Dorothy Samuels wrote at the New York Times last year.
What would be helpful here: More regulations, Samuels suggests.
"In fact, guns remain the only consumer product not regulated at the federal level for health and safety, in keeping with the wishes of the gun industry and compliant lawmakers," Samuels added.
3. Mass shootings are on the rise
Thankfully, mass murder on the level of Thursday's shooting in Oregon remains an outlier: mass shootings are exceedingly rare, compared to overall shootings.
But the overall trend is incredibly disturbing.
According to a report released last October, Harvard School of Public Health researchers found that the rate of all mass shootings in America had essentially tripled in the previous three years.
And mass shootings tend to be especially awful because they so often happen at schools and affect the youngest, most vulnerable members of our society.
Take school shootings: Between 2000 and 2010, there were as many multi-fatality school shootings in the United States as there were in China, England, France, Germany, India, Russia and 30 other countries — combined.
4. It's not just murders: Gun violence touches thousands of innocent lives
More than 11,000 people are murdered by guns every year — a huge number, enough to fill an NBA arena.
But accidental deaths are a problem, too. Hundreds of innocent children have been unintentionally shot and killed since 2010, according to an Everytown for Gun Safety report.
For Everytown's report, researchers examined one year — December 2013 through December 2014 — of unintentional shooting records. And based on available data, toddlers were disproportionately likely to suffer from a self-inflicted gunshot death.
According to Everytown's report, 70% of child shooting deaths could've been prevented by responsible storage.
5. Our surgeon general says it's a health problem like any other — and we should fix this
Vivek Murthy was nominated to be the nation's Surgeon General in 2013.
It took him more than a year to be confirmed — mostly because he'd once tweeted that gun violence was a "health care issue."
Murthy now says that he doesn't regret his comments on gun violence. In fact, he remains convinced that gun violence needs to be addressed. And we need to start thinking about it like we treat seatbelts and swimming pool safety.
"Whenever you have large numbers of people who are dying for preventable reasons, that constitutes a public health issue," Murthy said in an interview last month.
"In the past I've said that gun violence is a public health issue. That's not news to anybody that's worked in a hospital or visited a hospital," Murthy added.
"And I stand by that statement."
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From the archives:
- Why Baltimore Burned
- America's Uninsured Rate Is Down To 10% - And Falling
- Why More Doctors Are Quitting — And Why It's Not Obama's Fault
- Mass Shootings Are Rising. Here's How To Stop Them.
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