During the first half of 2005, 198 murders were reported in Los Angeles, 11
percent more than the same period of 2004 (Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2005).
Seventy-two people were murdered in Compton, California, with a population of
only 96,000 ( Compton Killings Highest in Years, Los Angeles Times, Jan. 2,
2006). Camden in New Jersey has become the most dangerous city in the United
States, with its homicide rate more than ten times the national average and
robbery rate, more than seven times the national average (Camden, N.J., Ranked
Most Dangerous U.S. City, The Washington Post, Nov. 22, 2005).
The United States has the largest number of privately owned guns in the
world. According to statistics released in June 2005 by the Brady Campaign, an
organization aiming to prevent gun violence, there were approximately 192
million privately owned firearms in the United States (Firearm Facts, Issued by
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, June 2005, in:
http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/factsheets/).
A survey conducted by the Washington Post and the American Broadcasting
Company showed that about ten percent of the surveyed were once shot, and 14
percent threatened by guns.
According to figures released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S.
Justice Department in 2005, in the year 2004 the United States recorded 339,200
firearm-related crimes, including 11,300 murders, 162,900 robberies, and 165,000
assaults (Statistics Crimes Committed with Firearms, Issued by U.S. Bureau of
Justice, in: http://www.ojb.usdoj.gov/bjs).
The Washington Post reported on Dec. 25, 2005 that every year nearly 12,000
Americans use guns to kill people. In the reports of crimes received by American
police in 2004, 70 percent of the murders, 41 percent of the robberies and 19
percent of assaults on persons were committed with firearms.
The unchecked spread of guns has caused incessant murders. In February 2005,
mother and husband of U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow were shot to
death at home in Chicago.
In March, a rape suspect killed one judge and two others at a courthouse in
Fulton County in Atlanta and hijacked four cars to escape.
On March 12, a gunman opened fire at a church service being held at the
Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield, Wisconsin, killing seven people and injuring four.
On March 21, 17-year-old Jeff Weise killed his grandparents and went on a
shooting rampage at the Red Lake High School in Indian Reservation in northern
Minnesota, killing another eight persons including school security guard,
teacher and students and injuring 14 others (CNN, March 21, 2005).
On April 25, a 14-year-old girl shot her father to death in Colorado. On
Christmas Day of 2005, a man shot and killed his mother at home in the suburb of
Washington and then drove eight miles to another home and killed three other
people, before turning the gun on himself (Washington, AP April 30, 2005).
