This is a number that speaks volumes about the use of firearms in the United States. One in five Americans say they have had a family member killed by a gun, including suicide, according to a study released Tuesday (April 11). The same number claim to have been directly threatened by a weapon. The United States pays a very heavy price for the spread of firearms in its territory and the ease with which Americans have access to them.
According to this survey, conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, this violence disproportionately affects black and Hispanic people. It was conducted with a representative sample of 1,271 Americans, ages 18 and older. As the lethal litany of gun killings in the United States continues, more and more Americans bear witness to the prevalence of these violent events in their lives.
During a press briefing on Monday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, for example, said that one of the victims killed moments earlier by a gunman in Louisville was one of his “closest friends”. US President Joe Biden has repeatedly promised to act against this scourge that successive governments have been unable to stem, but his room for maneuver is limited by a very strong paralysis in Congress.