As we end 2017, this country has suffered another year with too much gun violence and deaths. Mass shootings in Nevada and Texas made the headlines, but they were far from the only incidents. The nation averaged about one mass shooting (a shooting with 4 or more victims) for every day of the year.
The U.S. has an average of 93 people killed with a gun every day -- and for every death there are two people injured. About 12,000 homicides by gun occur every year (25 times the average of other high income countries) -- and the number of accidents/suicides is even higher. It is simply ridiculous to claim the U.S. doesn't have a serious problem of gun violence.
This is no secret. These numbers are available to anyone, and Congress is aware of them. The question is -- why has Congress not acted to address the issue? They have done nothing, and the public is not happy about that. In the chart above, we can see that by a 42 point margin (25% to 67%) the public thinks Congress has not done enough, and should do more to curb gun violence.
Americans want stricter gun laws by a 23 point margin (59% to 36%). And 95% of all Americans want it to be required that anyone trying to purchase a gun must have a background check. It has been suggested that politicians are afraid to pass stricter gun laws, because they think they might be punished by the voters for doing so. That's ridiculous, especially when it comes to background checks, where over 90% of every group wants that to happen.
The truth is that we have too many politicians that have been bought off by the NRA and gun manufacturers -- and they are willing to watch thousands of people die unnecessarily each year to keep the gun money flowing into their campaigns. That is inexcusable, and so is the inaction of the U.S. Congress.
These charts were made using numbers in a recent Quinnipiac University Poll -- done between December 13th and 18th of a random national sample of 1,230 voters, with a 3.3 point margin of error.