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Worry and fear about gun
violence are widespread in the United States, where most
families have been affected by a gun-related incident,
according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Nearly 1 in 5 adults has
had a family member killed by a gun, including in homicide and suicide.
About as many adults have been personally threatened with a gun, and
about 1 in 6 adults has witnessed an injury from a shooting, the survey
found.
These experiences are especially
common among Black adults, who are more than twice as likely as White
adults to have lost a loved one to gun violence.
A record number of people
are dying from firearm injuries in the US. There were nearly 49,000
gun-related deaths in 2021, according to data from the US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention – an unprecedented surge of
about 23% over two years during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The vast majority of adults
say they worry at least sometimes that they or someone in their family
will become a victim of gun violence, the new KFF survey found. Nearly a
quarter of parents of children younger than 18 say they worry about it
daily or almost daily.
Guns are now the leading
cause of death among children and teens in the US, surpassing car
accidents in 2020. In no other comparable country are firearms within the
top four causes of mortality among children, according to another recent
KFF analysis.
This survey gives us a
start look at the impact of gun violence on our collective American psyche.
It also provides some insights on improving the safety of gun ownership
for the future.
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