lately, so many ridiculous things happen in american politics each day that important issues get lost in the noise. in the case of today's subject, that's often deliberate. that's right - today we're going to talk about gun facts, collected by our sistah site: fillmybrain.blogspot.com.

• 60% of all u.s. citizens who die of gunshot wounds die because they used a gun to commit suicide.
• significantly more u.s. citizens have been killed by gun violence than by all of the wars in our history.
• in the u.s. in 2013 (the most recent year for which there is cdc data):
• 11,208 people were intentionally murdered with guns (34% of all gun deaths)
• 505 died to accidental gun discharge (2%)
• 21,175 killed themselves with guns (64%)
• a total of 32,888 people died as a direct result of guns
• although it has half the population of the other 22 high-income nations combined, the u.s. had 82 percent of all gun deaths, 90 percent of all women killed with guns, 91 percent of children under 14 and 92 percent of young people between ages 15 and 24 killed with guns.
• most of the guns used by criminals are straw purchases - that is, purchased by someone else and resold to a criminal.
• the second most common source of guns for criminals are purchasing from corrupt commercial or at-home sellers. because the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms does not have the funding to hire more inspectors, a typical gun store is only inspected once every 6 years or so.
• people in the old west didn't carry pistols. if they owned a gun, it was usually a rifle or shotgun, as pistols of the time were primitive, had an extremely limited range, and were impractical for hunting (which is what guns were most often used for). also, by 1878, most towns did not allow citizens to carry guns.
• if new orleans was a country, it would rank #2 in the world in terms of gun violence. it has the highest rate of gun violence of any city in the u.s.
• the lower an area ranks in terms of education and economic opportunity, the more likely it is to have a high crime rate, including homicide.
• non-fatal firearm related crime is half of what it was in 1993, and now accounts for about 5% of all violent crime. most of the decline took place in the 1990's.
• as a percent of all crimes, firearm-related crimes have gone from a high of 7% in 1993 to about 1.8% today. again, most of this decline took place in the 1990's.
• stolen guns only account for 10% to 15% of all guns used in crimes. the most common means criminals use to obtain firearms are via straw purchase (where a friend or acquaintance without a criminal record purchases a firearm on their behalf), corrupt dealers, and gun shows.
• 8% of licensed gun dealers sell almost all of the firearms used in crimes.
• a 1992 report in the new england journal of medicine found that people that own a firearm are 5 times more likely to commit suicide than people who do not own a firearm.
• the u.s. department of justice reports that 60% of all firearm-related deaths are suicides - 61% higher than deaths by homicide.
• about half of all suicides involve a firearm.
• the incidence of gun-related deaths in the u.s. per 1,000 citizens is 8 times higher than other nations with similar economic and political systems.
• japan has some of the toughest gun laws in the world, and has virtually eliminated firearm-related crime.
• your chances of being killed by a firearm in the u.s. are currently about 1 in 33,000.
• if there is a gun in your household, you are twice as likely to die due to homicide as someone who does not have a gun in their household.
• if you are a woman and there is a gun in your home, you are twice as likely to be a homicide victim than any man in the same household. the reason? domestic violence.
• the m1 carbine rifle was invented by david williams, a convicted murderer who designed guns while in prison.
• american civilians own more guns than civilians in the next 25 countries combined.
• the typical american gun collector is a white male with limited education, without any particular religious affiliation. the most common reason that they collect guns is that they are anxious about 3 things: 1. their ability to protect their families. 2. their place in the job market. 3. other races than their own.
• 3% of americans own half of that country's guns.
• in 2003, the united states congress passed a law that prevents anyone - even the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms - from revealing information regarding where guns used in a crime came from.
• a breakdown of where criminals in the u.s. get their guns:
• 56% - paid cash, and purchased from a dealer, friend, online, gun show, or police department
• 15% - it was a gift from a friend or family member
• 10% - borrowed it from a friend or relative
• 8% - traded for it
• 5% - stole it
• 8% of u.s. gun dealers sell guns illegally, without background checks. that's 9,920 dealers who sell to criminals.
• 27% of guns purchased from licensed gun dealers are seized by law enforcement officers within 2 years of sale. the reason? they were used in a crime.
• in japan, where civilians are prohibited from owning guns, your chances of being shot are about the same as your chances of being struck by lightning.
• after jesse james was killed, his mother made a living by buying secondhand guns and telling each prospective buyer that a given weapon was owned by her son.
• as of this writing, more people are killed in these states by guns than by automobiles, in order from most to least killings: pa, oh, mi, tn, az, la, mo, va, in, wa, co, md, or, nv, ut, ak, wy, dc.
• mexico has just 1 gun store. not just 1 in each city, or 1 in each state - one in the entire country. 90% of all of the guns in mexico arrive there - illegally - from the u.s.
• there are 6,000 gun stores on the u.s. side of the mexican border - within just a few miles of it, in fact. nobody on the u.s. side enforces existing laws regarding exportation, and the nra has successfully blocked making interstate transportation (let alone international transportation) of illegal firearms a felony.
• according to the cdc, 48% of women living in nevada will suffer rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner. the murder rate for guns in that state is also 38% higher than any other state.
• a researcher at the university of colorado invented a video game in which the player was a police officer that had to decide whether or not to shoot someone. the potential human targets would suddenly pop up holding guns, soft drinks, phones, wallets, etc. he found that test subjects were much ore likely to shoot black characters not holding weapons than white characters, even if the person playing the game was black.
• in states that have closed the background check loophole for handgun sales:
• 38% fewer women are shot to death by their partners
• 39% fewer on-duty police officers are shot and killed
• 49% fewer people commit suicide with guns
• in the 1970's, roughly 1/2 of all american households owned at least one gun. today, it's roughly 1 in 3. gun violence has declined along with the numbers of legally-owned guns... 49% since its peak in 1993.
• because guns are so easy to get in america, americans are 20 times more likely to die as a result of gun violence than the citizens of any other western country.
• there is a group of people that deny that the sandy hook shootings ever took place. they believe that it was an elaborate hoax to increase mental health screenings and take guns away from gun owners.
• arkansas passed a law to specifically allow people to carry concealed guns in church.
• every year, about 30 americans try to kill themselves with bb guns.
• the number of americans who own guns has declined dramatically in the past 30 years - from 29% in 1980 to slightly more than 20% in 2010 (and less than 10% of women). why is this not generally known? because gun manufacturers refuse to release sales numbers, and instead show numbers of background checks done - which has little to do with the actual sales numbers.
• in iceland, getting a gun requires a medical exam and a written test.