There has been another mass shooting, this one in Virginia Beach, where at least 12 people were killed. This essay originally ran in 2017, after a shooting in Texas church killed 26 people, but the issue is still tragically relevant — and will remain so until America tightens its gun safety policies.
America Has More Guns Than Any Other Country
The first step is to understand the scale of the challenge America faces: The U.S. has more than 300 million guns – roughly one for every citizen – and stands out as well for its gun death rates. At the other extreme, Japan has less than one gun per 100 people, and typically fewer than 10 gun deaths a year in the entire country.
