Gun violence is all too common in America. And conversations around them are all to commonly toxic. How do we think better about having conversations around guns? Nathan Clarkson and Joseph Holmes give it the old college try.

List of mass shootings: https://www.axios.com/2017/12/15/deadliest-mass-shootings-modern-us-history

General facts about guns in America: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/09/13/key-facts-about-americans-and-guns/

General facts about gun deaths in America: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/

UK has twice the violent crime as US: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2013/jun/24/blog-posting/social-media-post-says-uk-has-far-higher-violent-c/#:~:text=For%20England%20and%20Wales%2C%20we%20added%20together%20three,rate%20of%20775%20violent%20crimes%20per%20100%2C000%20people.

Australia/did not experience drops in gun deaths that could be attributed to their buybacks and bans https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-used-to-think-gun-control-was-the-answer-my-research-told-me-otherwise/2017/10/03/d33edca6-a851-11e7-92d1-58c702d2d975_story.html

90s Assault Weapons Ban didn’t work: https://www.propublica.org/article/fact-checking-feinstein-on-the-assault-weapons-ban

States with least gun control laws often have highest gun violence: https://www.statista.com/statistics/200445/reported-violent-crime-rate-in-the-us-states/

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/these-states-have-the-highest-rates-of-gun-violence-and-deaths#Heres-where-gun-violence-is-the-highest-in-the-U.S.

Gun control advocate and statistician Leah Libresco switches positions to be against it. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/i-used-to-think-gun-control-was-the-answer-my-research-told-me-otherwise/2017/10/03/d33edca6-a851-11e7-92d1-58c702d2d975_story.html

States like Vermont which have lowest gun violence also have lowest gun regulations: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/vermont-safe-and-happy-and-armed-teeth-charles-c-w-cooke/

Gun sales went up during 2020 protests and riots: https://www.npr.org/2020/07/16/891608244/protests-and-pandemic-spark-record-gun-sales

Over half of gun deaths are suicide. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/

Mash shootings have gone from three per year in 2000 to 40 a year in 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/02/03/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-u-s/

Are guns used in self-defense?: https://www.npr.org/2018/04/13/602143823/how-often-do-people-use-guns-in-self-defense

https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/firearms/fastfact.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulhsieh/2018/04/30/that-time-the-cdc-asked-about-defensive-gun-uses/?sh=bd10946299aa

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/oct/5/guns-used-more-for-self-defense-than-crimes/

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-01-31/gun-defense-myth

Young people now more likely to do mass shootings. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/02/us/politics/mass-shootings-young-men-guns.html

Gun show loophole is kinda true, kinda not: https://www.businessinsider.com/gun-show-loophole-biden-remarks-spur-conservative-fact-checks-2021-4

Norway and Finland have similar rates of gun ownership but are among the safest places: 

https://theconversation.com/us-shootings-norway-and-finland-have-similar-levels-of-gun-ownership-but-far-less-gun-crime-183933

Handgunst most commonly used for mass shootings: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/07/12/mass-shootings-weapons-legal-what-to-know/7814081001/