Aug 4, 2019
How many guns there are in the U.S.
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Candles honoring the 20 deceased victims of the El Paso mass shooting sit in St Pius X Church following a vigil. Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images
International research has found that U.S. mass shootings cannot be explained by a violent culture, racial divisions or mental health, the N.Y. Times' Max Fisher and Josh Keller write in "The Interpreter" column.
It's simply the "astronomical number of guns."
- "The United States has 270 million guns and had 90 mass shooters from 1966 to 2012."
- "No other country has more than 46 million guns or 18 mass shooters" — the U.S. is way worse than the Philippines, Russia, China or India.
- Americans alone own 40% of all guns in the world, more than all civilians combined in 25 other countries.
Countries with the highest gun ownership rate, per a survey by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva:
- United States: 120.5 per 100 people
- Yemen: 52.8 per 100 people
- Montenegro: 39.1 per 100 people
- Serbia: 39.1 per 100 people
- Canada: 34.7 per 100 people
- Uruguay: 34.7 per 100 people
- Cyprus: 34.0 per 100 people
- Finland: 32.4 per 100 people
- Lebanon: 31.9 per 100 people
- Iceland: 31.7 per 100 people
Japan and Indonesia, meanwhile, have fewer than 1 firearm per 100.
A back-to-school Saturday in America ...
