Justice

This Comic Captures the Problem With U.S. Gun Violence

October 1st 2015

In the wake of the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon on Thursday, we're already hearing calls for gun reform—more rigorous background checks, better mental health screenings—but though many argue that mass shootings are preventable, they seem to happen so frequently that we're often desensitized, and at a loss for solutions. 

That's the point that cartoonist Darrin Bell made in this comic.

Gun ShootingDarrin Bell - gocomics.com

Guns are involved in approximately 81,300 nonfatal injuries and 31,672 deaths each year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That's about 308 shootings and 86 deaths that occur in the U.S. every day, the Washington Post reported.

Not every shooting makes headlines, of course. But when they happen at schools, churches, or movie theaters, the country frequently launches into another round of debates about whether or not the tragedy ought to prompt gun reform.

Mass shootings are significantly more common in the U.S. than any other country in the world, as ATTN: has previously reported. In the past 50 years, this country has experienced at least 90 mass shootings or approximately one-third of the total number of mass shootings in 171 countries.

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