We’ve had a massive decline in gun violence in the United States. Here’s why.

Fewer Americans are dying as a result of gun violence — a shift that began about two decades ago.

In 1993, there were seven homicides by firearm for every 100,000 Americans, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By 2013, that figure had fallen by nearly half, to 3.6 — a total of 11,208 firearm homicides. The rate of shootings that didn’t result in death declined even more precipitously, from 725 in 1993 per 100,000 people to 175 in 2013.

Older data suggests that gun violence might have been even more widespread previously. The rate of murder and manslaughter excluding negligence reached an apex in 1980, according to the FBI. That year, there were 10.8 willful killings per 100,000 people. Although not a perfect measure of the overall rate of gun violence, the decline in the rate of murder and manslaughter is suggestive: Two in three homicides these days are committed with guns.

This decline in gun violence is part of an overall decline in violent crime.

We’ve had a massive decline in gun violence in the United States. Here’s why.

igorvolsky on Twitter: “Top 10 recipients of money from pro-gun groups in 2016: https://t.co/OMHxjG9API”

Top 10 recipients of money from pro-gun groups in 2016: pic.twitter.com/OMHxjG9API

igorvolsky on Twitter: “Top 10 recipients of money from pro-gun groups in 2016: https://t.co/OMHxjG9API”

Here’s a map of all the mass shootings in 2015 | PBS NewsHour

BY Megan Hickey and Joshua Barajas December 2, 2015 at 10:28 PM EST

As details surrounding the San Bernardino, California, shooting gradually emerged Wednesday evening, President Barack Obama told CBS News that the U.S. has “a pattern now of mass shooting in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.”

The mass shooting at a social services agency in San Bernardino left at least 14 dead and 17 others wounded. It is also the deadliest mass shooting in the U.S. since Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 15, 2012, killing 26 children and adults, the Associated Press reported.

Using data from shootingtracker.com, which is maintained by a Reddit group, we’ve updated our map that documents all the U.S. mass shootings in 2015 alone. The group defines mass shootings as incidents when at least four people are killed or wounded, including the gunman. [follow the link for an interactive map]

Here’s a map of all the mass shootings in 2015 | PBS NewsHour

When we focus on the perpetrators of crimes, including mass killings, the Gun Industry and its defenders say “there’s nothing we can do” and literally shoot down any suggestions to the contrary. Every gun used in a crime belonged to someone before the criminal. In many cases, the guns were sold direct to the criminal, by a store, by a dealer, by an individual. Let’s get that guy. 

The Gun Industry will insist many guns used in crimes were stolen. Tthere are no stats, because the Gun Lobby shoots down every effort to accumulate stats. Nevertheless, the stolen gun belonged to a legitimate owner at one time. Let’s get that guy.

The Gun Industry is massively profitable. We can make the casual indifference of the bloody industry cost them dearly.  We can shutdown and sue stores and dealers who sell guns and ammo  used in crimes. We can fine and arrest owners who make no effort to secure their weapons from theft (or use by children). Make them pay.

Perhaps a few big lawsuits and arrests will wake up the Gun Industry and make them accept efforts to keep guns under control of someone who can be trusted with a gun and keep guns out of the hands of those who can’t be trusted. It can be done.

Recall that the continuum of the blood-soaked Industry of Death includes the corner gun store and the fanatics who elevate the gun above everything else.

Pope Francis’ Historic Address To Congress Covered A Lot of Issues. We Broke It Down For You. | ThinkProgress

Francis then reiterated his longtime aversion to the weapons trade, which he has called an “industry of death.”

“Being at the service of dialogue and peace also means being truly determined to minimize and, in the long term, to end the many armed conflicts throughout our world,” he said. “Here we have to ask ourselves: Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply for money: money that is drenched in blood, often innocent blood. In the face of this shameful and culpable silence, it is our duty to confront the problem and to stop the arms trade.”

Pope Francis’ Historic Address To Congress Covered A Lot of Issues. We Broke It Down For You. | ThinkProgress

The True Cost of Gun Violence in America | Mother Jones by Mark Follman, Senior Editor, et al.

Jennifer Longdon was one of at least 750,000 Americans injured by gunshots over the last decade, and she was lucky not to be one of the more than 320,000 killed. Each year more than 11,000 people are murdered with a firearm, and more than 20,000 others commit suicide using one. Hundreds of children die annually in gun homicides, and each week seems to bring news of another toddler accidentally shooting himself or a sibling with an unsecured gun. And perhaps most disturbingly, even as violent crime overall has declined steadily in recent years, rates of gun injury and death are climbing (up 11 and 4 percent since 2011) and mass shootings have been on the rise.

Yet, there is no definitive assessment of the costs for victims, their families, their employers, and the rest of us—including the major sums associated with criminal justice, long-term health care, and security and prevention. Our media is saturated with gun carnage practically 24/7. So why is the question of what we all pay for it barely part of the conversation?

The True Cost of Gun Violence in America | Mother Jones

Because the Gun Industry and its proxies, the Gun-nuts, shout it down and shoot it down.

Gun nuts note: You won. You’re wacky interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is the law. Just try to control your weapons, OK?

Will the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre Ever Stop Lying? – The Daily Beast by Dean Obeidallah

In 2008, the NRA honcho said Obama was going to confiscate guns. Now, Hillary wants to. The lies will never end.

“They are coming to take your guns away!” That was the message from this past weekend’s annual NRA Convention. In fact, it’s the same message we have heard for years from the NRA. And just as it has been in the past, as it was this weekend, that message is a lie.

Will the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre Ever Stop Lying? – The Daily Beast

Gun owners face much higher murder risks, researchers said. Then the NRA silenced them. Amber Hall, The Takeaway

Back in the early 1990s, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control provided funding for studies on gun violence. The NRA was not pleased.

“[Our research] underwent peer review and was thought to be very solid and worthwhile research,” says Dr. Fred Rivara, who was part of the team that researched gun violence. “The CDC stood by our research — they had funded it and they stood by it. Unfortunately, it raised the attention of the National Rifle Association, who then worked with pro-gun members of Congress to essentially stop funding firearm research.” …

And that wasn’t all. “More importantly, however, was that they put a clause for the appropriations of the CDC that essentially blocked all gun research for the next two decades,” Rivara says.

The CDC budget cuts all but ended federal gun research.

Gun owners face much higher murder risks, researchers said. Then the NRA silenced them.