Guns, Not Cars, Will Soon Be The Number One Cause Of Death Among Young Americans
by Liam O'Connor
Gun
violence is set to overtake car accidents as the leading cause of death
among young people in 2015 in the United States, according to a new
study.
In
2010 6,201 Americans aged 15-24 were killed with a gun. Deaths
involving car accidents and dangerous driving killed marginally more in
this age group, 7,021. That figure has been steadily declining over the
past ten years, while the number of young Americans killed with a gun in
that time has remained stable. According to a major new study from the
Center for American Progress, if current trends continue gun violence
will overtake incidents involving cars as the leading cause of death for
young Americans some time in 2015.
The
website Think Progress pointed out that the spectacular decline in
deaths involving cars, from a high of 12,000 in 1990 to today's figure,
was not an accident, but the result of a massive public campaign to
improve road and car safety:
"[B]illions
of dollars have been spent on public health and safety research to
understand motor vehicle accidents and how to prevent them from becoming
fatal. This research has resulted in design innovation, changes to cars
and roadways, and new laws that have led to a significant and steady
decline in such fatalities among all age groups, including young people.
There was no silver bullet for reducing vehicular death: airbags,
seatbelt laws, anti-lock brakes, better signage, and tough drunk driving
laws all contributed to it."
Conversely
in that same period the number of deaths involving firearms has
remained steady, even while violent crime as a whole has been
significantly reduced over the past twenty years. Unfortunately, as
ThinkProgress noted, scientific investigations into gun violence have
been the subject of intense political resistance:
"Restrictions
on such research imposed by Congress have had a substantial chilling
effect, which has resulted in the almost total abandonment of this issue
by our nation’s public health research institutions. Without this
research, policymakers, legislators, community leaders, and parents are
left without much direction regarding how to best protect children and
teenagers from gun violence."
In
the past, public health issues have demanded the marshaling of
America's resources to combat them. The Clean Water Act, the National
Institute of Health and laws governing road safety are examples of when
lawmakers in the United States recognized the need to tackle an issue or
a crisis in order to protect the public. Gun violence is no different
to any of the above examples. Thousands of Americans are killed every
year with a gun, and thousands more are injured, sometimes for the rest
of their lives. Every single one of these deaths is preventable. No one
needs to die because of guns in the 21st Century in the wealthiest and
most advanced country on Earth. The American public need to insist and
demand that their elected representatives take action to combat the
disease that is gun violence. If nothing is done then America will pass a
grim and disgraceful milestone in 2015, and will do so in the full
knowledge that it could have been prevented and even reversed.
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