Gun Violence Declared a Public Health Crisis in America. What’s Connecticut Doing About It? A Lot.

In late June, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a statement declaring that gun violence is now a public health crisis in America. Firearms‑related deaths in America reached a nearly 30-year high in 2021. Over the past decade, suicide rates in America have increased 20% and homicide rates 62%.

But once more facts are known, Connecticut residents can rest assured that their state is among the best in the nation when it comes to passing the types of firearms safety laws that severely reduce murders, suicides, and child gun accidents.

In late June, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy outlined a stark landscape for America, where overall gun violence is astronomically higher than in our peer countries like Canada, England, Australia, Germany, Japan, France and others.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization found that, in 2015, the overall firearms‑related death rate was 11.4 times higher in the U.S. compared to 28 other high‑income nations. During the same year, 84% of all firearms‑related deaths across 29 countries occurred in the United States, despite the U.S. only accounting for about 31% of the population. American children are especially vulnerable to gun violence: across 29 countries, 90% of children ages 0‑14 who died from firearms‑related injuries lived in the United States.

But there is good news, too: Since 2021, firearm‑related homicides in the U.S. have dropped, as have suicides. And there’s better news: Connecticut’s firearms-related death rates are among the lowest in the nation, thanks in large part to the gun safety laws that Connecticut Democrats have passed into law over the years in the General Assembly

In 2021, Connecticut had the third-lowest child and teen firearms mortality rate in the nation, with 2.8 deaths per 100,0000 children ages 1-19 years old. The national average was 6.0, and Mississippi and Louisiana saw rates of 15.3 and 17.6, respectively.

In 2022, Connecticut’s overall firearm death rate per 100,000 residents was 6.9, the 6^th-lowest in the country.

And in 2021, Connecticut was also one of the safest states in the nation when it comes to suicide with a firearm, averaging fewer than 10 per 100,000 population. Again, states like Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Wyoming and Montana saw suicide rates above 25 per 100,000 population.

Why is Connecticut avoiding the types of firearms murders, suicides and child gun accidents that have plagued other American states to the point when the surgeon general has to declare a national emergency?  A lot of it has to do with Democrats’ commitment to public safety, despite overwhelming Republican opposition:

Here’s a sampling of state gun safety bills that Connecticut Democrats have passed, mostly in the past decade, and which Republican have vehemently opposed:

-1993 assault weapons ban – half to two-thirds Republicans voted NO on a bill to ban the sale of at least 30 different models of semiautomatic, military-style assault rifles in Connecticut.

-2013 assault weapons ban following the Sandy Hook massacre – half to two-thirds of Republicans vote NO on a bill to expand the 1993 list of assault weapons, ban the sale and possession of large capacity magazines, institute criminal background checks for all firearm purchases, and require a permit to buy ammunition.

-2019 ghost guns ban – 60% of House and Senate Republicans voted NO on a bill to ban the sale and possession of homemade, untraceable “ghost guns” and to require pistols left unattended in a car to be in the trunk, a locked glove box, or a locked safe.

-2019 ‘Ethan’s Law’ safe gun storage bill requiring that firearms be properly stored regardless of whether they are loaded or unloaded was passed on a bipartisan basis.

-2021 expanded ‘Red Flag’ law – 100% of Republicans voted NO on a bill to allow family members and medical professionals to apply for a Risk Warrant if they feared a person with access to firearms was a risk to themselves or others.

-2023 comprehensive gun safety bill – 90% of Republicans voted NO on a bill to ban the open carrying of firearms in public, increase bail for offenders with repeated serious firearm offenses, prevent the bulk purchasing of guns, makes commission of a family violence crime into an automatic disqualifier for having a pistol permit, requires trigger locks on all firearms, and requires anyone purchasing body armor to possess a pistol permit.

Posted by Lawrence Cook