Fewer Guns, Fewer Deaths: An Idea Everyone But the US Seems to Agree With

Most of the world is appalled that the United States resists pursuing what the president calls “common sense” regulations to curb mass shootings, explains Iain Overton of Action on Armed Violence for the Globe and Mail. A mass shooting in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub left 49 dead, and the suspect is reported to have scouted Disney World as a target. Most US voters and even gun owners support stronger background checks. US Congress, fearing the powerful gun lobby, has placed limits on research into gun violence. Florida prohibits physicians from discussing gun safety with parents. Gun-rights advocates suggest that more guns improve security, but statistics do not bear that out: Researchers may struggle to prove cause and effect, but nations that limit gun ownership experience fewer deaths. Overton urges the US to learn from responses to mass shootings in Britain, Australia and other countries and concludes, “The United States, with its constitutional right to own a gun, is the only country in the world where they have loosened, not tightened, gun laws after a massacre.” Florida touts tourism as its top industry, and loose laws on gun safety pose economic risks. – YaleGlobal

Fewer Guns, Fewer Deaths: An Idea Everyone But the US Seems to Agree With

Rest of the world is puzzled by the United States, the only country in the world where gun laws have have been loosened, not tightened, after massacres
Iain Overton
Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Read the article from the Globe & Mail.


Read the article on possible risks to the Florida tourism industry from CNBC.

Iain Overton is director of investigations at the London-based charity Action on Armed Violence, and author of The Way of the Gun: A Bloody Journey into the World of Firearms.

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