Gun violence and death and injury from firearms is a serious public health problem, which disproportionately affect young people, lower-income people, and communities of color.
Firearms were used in about half of the 475,000 murders committed worldwide in 2012.
On average, 33,000 Americans are killed with guns each year. Each day in the U.S., 86 civilians, including five children under the age of 18, die from firearms–more than three firearm deaths an hour. The U.S. has seven times the average firearm-related homicide rate of other high-income countries. And that doesn’t even include the many thousands more wounded by firearms.
Gun violence is one of the leading causes of death among American teens. In 2010, more than half of those murdered with guns in the U.S. were under the age of 30. The gun-homicide rate for black males is 2.4 times higher than for Latino males, and 15.3 times higher than for non-Hispanic white males.
Preventing Gun Violence
PSR-NY has joined forces with New Yorkers Against Gun Violence as part of the New York State Coalition to Prevent Child Access to Guns, which builds support for Nicholas’s Law, a State law which would require safe storage and help prevent child access to firearms in New York. Sign the petition to call for safer gun storage here. On the national front, we’re also starting to work with the National Physicians Alliance’s Advocacy Taskforce on Gun Violence Prevention.
Arms Trade Treaty
Members of PSR-NY work with the Aiming for Prevention program of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). Through this work, we advocated American policymakers in urging a strong humanitarian-based Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) at the United Nations in New York City.
We were successful! After being ratified by a 50th country in September 2014, the ATT officially went into implementation on December 24, 2014. The U.S. signed the ATT in September 2013, but we need your help to work towards ratification by the Senate. Please contact us at psrny1@gmail.com to find out how you can help.
Learn More
Collaborating and Likeminded Organizations
Resources
Gun Safety & Public Health: Policy Recommendations for a More Secure America
National Physicians Alliance and Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
New York vs. Federal Gun Laws comparison
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence
Top 10 Reasons Why Communities of Color Should Care About Stricter Gun-Violence Prevention Laws
Center for American Progress
The Racial Divide in America’s Gun Deaths
Washington Post
Young Guns: How Gun Violence Is Devastating the Millennial Generation
Center for American Progress