June is Gun Violence Awareness Month. In 2017, there were 39,773 deaths in the United States involving guns; 23,854 were suicides. This is almost 3,000 more people killed with guns than the previous year — it is an increase of 10,000 from 1999 and the highest it has been since gun mortality data was first recorded in 1979. Nearly 109 people died every single day from gun violence in 2017. For Gun Violence Awareness Month we are highlighting the public health crisis and the barriers that are keeping effective prevention from being implemented.
Before 1996 the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) was charged with researching gun violence, much in the way that the CDC researched deaths from car crashes and the life-saving effects of seatbelts and child car seats. Following a 1993 study that connected gun ownership with a higher risk of being the victim of a homicide by a family member or intimate acquaintance, the National Rifle