You’ve heard the statistics before: Americans have more guns per head than any nation on earth – along with gun violence rates that are dramatically higher than other rich, developed countries. But these big-picture facts can be misleading. Not every American is packing heat and gun violence is intensely concentrated in small neighbourhoods. Here’s a look at the dramatic concentration of America’s guns – and America’s violence...

Most gunmen have one thing in common: a history of violence against family members

Americans advance a lot of theories for why they have so many more gun deaths than other countries do. The answer is lying in plain sight.

In the 18 years since Columbine rocked America to its core, the country has seen so many more mass shootings that the attack isn't even among the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern US history.

The impact of firearm carrying on public health and public safety is a topic of considerable interest in the US. Nonetheless, contemporary national data on some of the most fundamental questions about the scope of firearm carrying among adults in the US do not exist. We used data collected through a nationally representative survey designed by investigators at Harvard University and Northeastern University and conducted in 2015 to understand why, how frequently...

The doctors who lead the medical profession’s debates on how best to preserve and restore our health are done with moments of silence in the face of gun-related violence. In the wake of a mass shooting that killed 59 people and wounded hundreds more in Las Vegas, they neither minced words nor observed political niceties in describing the threat that firearms pose to Americans’ health.

The powerful National Rifle Association on Thursday backed "additional regulations" on devices that boost semi-automatic weapons' firing rates, like the tools used by the shooter in the Las Vegas massacre. In a statement, the influential gun rights group's Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox urged the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to review the legality of so-called bump stocks. They stopped short of pushing Congress to pass a bill banning or regulating the devices.

Australians turned in 51,000 illegal firearms, ranging from 19th-century weapons to a rocket launcher, during a three-month amnesty that ended on Friday, and which Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said had helped avert Las Vegas-style mass shootings. The cache, representing about a fifth of illegal firearms, was collected during Australia’s second amnesty since its worst ever massacre, when a lone gunman killed 35 people in the island state of Tasmania in 1996.

Australia offered to help the United States reform its gun laws on Tuesday (Oct 3) after a successful two-decade clampdown on firearms in the wake of its own worst mass shooting. The US is reeling after at least 59 people were killed and more than 500 injured when retired accountant Stephen Paddock opened fire on thousands of concertgoers in Las Vegas before killing himself.

The United States has decided it isn’t going to address out-of-control gun violence, and no insight about an individual shooter will change that. By Jesse Singal.

Several guns can be seen lying around the room of the hotel.

Stephen Paddock rented condos overlooking the ‘Life Is Beautiful’ festival according to a report.

After a mass shooting in Las Vegas left at least 58 dead and 500 people injured, most U.S. media focused on the usual stories: a cycle of shock, blame, and healing. The rest of the world, however, largely marveled at what on earth is wrong with Americans. Why are there so many mass shootings in a country that’s not mired in civil war? Why are people allowed to buy semi-automatic weapons? And how does law enforcement in the United States decide when a mass shooting is the act of a “lone wolf”...

Objective Racism is related to policies preferences and behaviors that adversely affect blacks and appear related to a fear of blacks (e.g., increased policing, death penalty). This study examined whether racism is also related to gun ownership and opposition to gun controls in US whites. Method The most recent data from the American National Election Study, a large representative US sample, was used to test relationships between racism, gun ownership, and opposition to gun control in US whites.

Mass shootings reveal to Americans otherwise insulated from quotidian gun murder that they are not immune, that brutal death or grievous injury can, in principle, come to them no matter who they are or where they might be. Compounding this sense of terrifying vulnerability is the recognition of a properly existential futility: an understanding that, no matter your station or your status, if this is how death comes to you, then, in any substantive sense, your death will not matter.

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson gave away the GOP game on health care at a high school assembly recently. Contrast to his party’s position on guns. By Michael Tomasky.

If lost wages are added, ‘really startling’ costs rise to $45bn annually, according to Johns Hopkins study of gun violence surveying emergency room admissions

One image says everything you need to know about the failed US approach to gun control.

"In Australia. Our weirdos are forced to write stern letters,"

Activists try to prevent weapons firms from setting up stands at ExCel centre, saying arms may be used to commit war crimes