Tornado Alley (PROG)

[SoxFan]

SEVEN STEPS.
27,000 LIVES.

In America, guns are a fact of life — and too often a cause of death. In all, 38,658 people died from gunshots in 2016. Some were murdered; others took their own lives. Some were killed by accident.

But none of them had to die.

Nearly 60 percent of those gun deaths were suicides.

About 37 percent were homicides.

Most of the rest were accidental or undetermined.

Massachusetts had the lowest gun death rate in the country in 2016: About 3.5 per 100,000.

People killed by guns in Massachusetts represent a small fraction of those killed nationally.

By comparison: Tennessee, which has slightly fewer people than Massachusetts, had a gun death rate of 17.3 per 100,000.

In other words, nearly five times as many people died.

If every state had the same gun death rate as Massachusetts, some 27,000 lives could have been saved.

That’s 70 percent fewer lives cut short by gunfire. And that’s just fatalities: For every person killed with a gun, two to three more are injured.

MARCH 23, 2018

Many factors contribute to the prevalence of gun deaths. Rates of gun ownership — also relatively low in Massachusetts — and factors such as geography, education, and availability of health care all contribute.

Yet the death rate in Massachusetts is low not just because of good hospitals and favorable demographics, but also because our laws foster a more careful coexistence with guns.

Our laws could and should go further, but they recognize this much: Focusing on the cause of death — the weapons — is the best chance we have to keep more people alive.

Saving lives is a choice. It’s a choice the people of Massachusetts have made on a bipartisan basis, bit by bit, over decades. In the wake of the latest in a long line of mass killings, people all over the country appear ready to make similar choices. Some 67 percent of the country supports tougher gun laws, the highest level of support in more than three decades.

Here are seven common-sense laws, all of which are consistent with the Second Amendment, and all of which have been shown to make living with guns safer.


3.55 GUN DEATH RATE

1 SAFETY RANK

4 of 7 ENACTED LAWS

Strong law
Empower Local Communities
Local police decide who can own any gun

Strong law
Protect Consumers
State law regulates both the manufacture and safety of firearms

Weak or no law
Protect the Vulnerable
Extreme Risk Protective Order laws allow families and police to remove guns from high-risk homes

Strong law
Ban Assault Weapons
All high-powered, semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines are banned for civilian use

Strong law
Store Guns Safely
Owners can face charges if their weapons are stored unsafely around kids — even if the guns are not used

Weak or no law
Regulate Gun Dealers
All gun purchases, including private sales, require a point-of-sale background check

No federal law
Get the Data
The federal government must allow and fund study of gun violence

More
https://apps.bostonglobe.com/opinion/graphics/2018/03/seven-steps/?s_campaign=bdc:globewell:trending