Effects of Gun Violence

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Top Highlights

• Let's call gun violence exactly what it is — an epidemic

• A 2017 report by the Urban Institute shows that higher levels of neighborhood gun violence can be associated with fewer retail and service establishments as well as fewer new jobs.

• Beyond the economic cost, we also see fractured families, neighborhoods, and communities. According to the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA), more than 5 percent of America’s children have witnessed a shooting.

• A 2017 report by the Urban Institute shows that higher levels of neighborhood gun violence can be associated with fewer retail and service establishments as well as fewer new jobs

• Gun violence is estimated to cost the American economy at least $229 billion every year. Let that sink in — $229 billion.

• lower home values, credit scores, and homeownership rates.

• As a result, gun violence hurts a community's housing prices and drives residents to relocate from or avoid moving to affected neighborhoods.

• In 2010 alone, 36,000 victims of firearm assaults visited the emergency room, and 25,000 were admitted to the hospital — coming to a total cost of $630 million in medical treatment.

• charged to taxpayers through publicly funded health insurance, and 28 percent was billed to people who lacked health insurance.

• In 2016, the American Medical Association (AMA), the country's largest physicians group, adopted a formal policy calling gun violence "a public health crisis."

• People who are impacted by gun violence may experience stress, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The effects of this harm extend not just to survivors but also to witnesses, bystanders, neighbors, and all those who love them