The second deadly epidemic of the American Empire: Homicide, Suicide and Firearm OwnershipThe US is ranked 77th globally in the number of deaths by homicide, which may not sound too bad at all. The issue arises when we scan the countries above the US and noticed the absence of any developed Western democracies. At 4.96 homicides per 100,000 people, the US rate is four times that of the UK or France, both at only 1.2 in 148th and 150th spot respectively. There may be many reasons behind this fact, but it is no coincidence that neither the UK nor France allows their citizens easy access to firearms. It is far more likely that a disagreement, altercation or domestic argument will lead to a fatality in a country awash with firearms. Whilst the argument is often made that it is not the gun but the person who wields it that is to blame, the person in question is far more deadly when they are armed with a pistol rather than a kitchen knife. The US has the second highest number of gun-related deaths globally (some 37,000 in 2019), not that far behind Brazil (over 49,000), and firearms are the means used in around 75 per cent of all homicides. If we factor in total population, the US falls just outside the 20 most violent countries, with 10.89 firearm-related deaths per 100,000 people, but this is nothing to celebrate. Most of western Europe has a rate below three deaths per 100,000 (the UK’s is 0.24). American’s annual death toll from firearms is more than ten times the number of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and over five times the number of US servicepeople killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is completely unsurprising in a nation that has the highest level of gun ownership in the world, and more guns than people - the rate of civilian ownership is around 120 guns per 100 people. To find out what this means for the American Empire, make sure to pay attention carefully to Chapter 3: Society: Decay from within.
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