The Gun Policy Debate
Why the US stands alone among wealthy democracies on gun violence, the constitutional and political forces that shape gun policy, and the interest groups on both sides.
American Exceptionalism on Gun Violence
The United States has roughly 120 firearms per 100 residents, nearly double the next-highest country (the Falkland Islands) and more than all the countries in Europe combined on a per-capita basis. The US experiences roughly 45,000 gun deaths per year, including suicides, homicides, and accidents. The firearm homicide rate is 25 times higher than that of other high-income countries.
No other wealthy democracy experiences mass shootings with anything close to American frequency. Countries that did experience devastating mass shootings, such as the United Kingdom after Dunblane in 1996, Australia after Port Arthur in 1996, and New Zealand after Christchurch in 2019, responded with sweeping gun restrictions and saw dramatic reductions in gun deaths. The United States has not followed this pattern, despite Sandy Hook (2012), Parkland (2018), Uvalde (2022), and dozens of other mass casualty events.