At least 20 register more deaths from firearms than Haiti and 25 register more than Afghanistan, study reveals
Jim Cason and David Brooks
Correspondents
La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, November 1, 2024, p. 18
Washington and New York. The four US states of Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and New Mexico have a higher rate of deaths from gun violence than Mexico, while at least 20 have higher rates of deaths from gunshot wounds than Haiti, concludes new research from the Commonwealth Fund.
Nearly all U.S. states have higher shooting death rates than most other countries.reports the New York-based research and analysis institute.
Blacks, American Indians, and Alaska Natives have the highest gun death rates of any other racial or ethnic group. This year, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy noted that more than half of all adults in this country have had a personal experience with gun violence or have a family member who has. Gunshot wounds are also now the leading cause of death for minors in the United States and guns or rifles are the most used instrument in cases of domestic violence against women.
The researchers used data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle to compare the number of firearm deaths in different states in this country against the same indicator in other parts of the world. The measure of deaths from firearms is a combined number of deaths resulting from physical violence with bullets, attempted self-harm with weapons, and unintentional harm with firearms.
The firearm death rate in Mississippi averages 28.5 deaths per 100,000 people, higher than the levels in Louisiana, Alabama and New Mexico. In comparison, the mortality rate from firearms in Mexico is 23.3 per 100 thousand people.
Venezuela, El Salvador, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have the highest firearm death rates, according to this report, higher than any state in the United States. But of the countries included, Mexico follows those three in that category, followed by Colombia, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Haiti.
There are at least 20 states with a higher level of deaths from gunshot wounds than Haiti. And more than half of the 50 US states suffer a higher rate of loss of life from it than Afghanistan.
For the United States to compare itself to countries involved in some kind of conflict (civil war, widespread unrest, drug/weapons trafficking) is truly astonishing.commented Evan Gemas, co-author of the report to Washington Post. Many Americans would be surprised to learn how similar our rates are to conflict zones around the world.. To view the report: https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/2024/oct/comparing-deaths-gun-violence-us-other-countries?check_logged_in=1
