Gun ownership has long been the cause of controversial debate, particularly in the US. Now, a new study has suggested that countries with higher levels of gun ownership are not safer than those with lower levels.
Researchers from St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the New York University Langone Medical Center analyzed data from 27 developed countries, looking at possible associations between gun ownership rates, mental illness, and the risk of firearm-related death.
Their research was published in The American Journal of Medicine.
According to the researchers, a popular notion - particularly in the US - has been that "guns make a nation safer." However, they note that there has been little evidence either way.
Shootings over the years, the researchers say, have demonstrated that there is a potential relationship between mental illness and easy access to guns, and that aside from the availability of guns, lack of treatment for mental illness may pose a bigger problem.
For the study, the researchers obtained gun ownership data from the Small Arms Survey, while data for firearm-related deaths was obtained from a detailed World Health Organization (WHO) European mortality database, the National Center for Health Statistics, among others.
The safety of a nation was determined by crime rates obtained from the United Nations Surveys of Crime Trends.
No comments:
Post a Comment