LEGAL STUDIES RESEARCH PAPER SERIES PAPER NO. 19-01-11 January 18, 2019 Harris Institute Report The U.S. Gun Violence Crisis: Human Rights Perspectives and Remedies By Leila Nadya Sadat Director, Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law Madaline M. George Fellow, Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute HARRIS INSTITUTE REPORT The U.S. Gun Violence Crisis: Human Rights Perspectives and Remedies By Leila Nadya Sadat Director, Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute James Carr Professor of International Criminal Law Madaline M. George Fellow, Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute January 18, 2019 DRAFT Table of Contents Annex 1: Glossary of Terms.....................................................................................................................107 i DRAFT Table of Contents ii DRAFT Annex 1: Glossary of Terms...................................................................................................................107 iii DRAFT List of Figures Figure 1: Deaths per 100,000 people from Firearms & Motor Vehicle Traffic Events,. 1950 – 2010........................................................................................................................................... 5 Figure 2: Total Gun-Related Deaths versus Vehicle-Related Deaths of Young Americans, .. 1999- 2016............................................................................................................................................. 8 Figure 3: Worst Mass Shootings in the United States Since 1991 (victims killed) ................................ 9 Figure 4: Percent of Respondents Who Think Having a Gun in the Home Makes it Safer.............. 13 Figure 5: U.S. Gun Deaths by Race and Gender among 20-29 year-olds (2011-2013) ..................... 15 Figure 6: Percent of Respondents Who Know Someone Who Has Been Shot and Who Report... Having Been Shot Themselves........................................................................................................ 17 Figure 7: Global Arms Exports, Percent of Market Share by Country (2017) .................................... 28 Figure 8: Gun Laws and Gun-Related Deaths, by State, 2015 .............................................................. 49 Figure 9: Gun-Related Deaths in High-Income Countries per 1 Million People ............................... 50 Figure 10: Estimated rate of civilian firearms by country, 2017 ........................................................... 51 Figure 11: Firearm-Related Mortality Rates, Legislative Strength Scores, and Total Firearm Deaths . in the United States, 2007 through 2010........................................................................................ 55 Figure 12: Gun prevalence and Suicide Rank by State............................................................................. 57 Figure 13: In-Hospital Case-Fatality Rates by Traumatic Injury Type................................................... 94 Figure 14: Mortality Rate vs. Funding and Publication Volume for 30 Leading Causes of Death . in the United States............................................................................................................................ 95 iv DRAFT I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. The Harris Institute has been conducting research on gun violence in the United States and human rights law since fall 2017 in collaboration with the Washington University’s Institute for Public Health.1 We have examined open source information, including federal databases, non-governmental websites, medical and legal research journals, reputable newspaper sources, and other media. Our research revealed a startling and incontrovertible fact: gun violence in the United States has reached crisis proportions. In 2017, the most recent year for which hard data is available, 173,500 people were shot, over 39,700 of which died: 60.0% from suicide, 36.6% from homicide, 1.4% from legal intervention, and 1.2% from unintentional (accidental) deaths.2 On average in 2017, nearly 109 people died from guns and another 366 suffered nonfatal firearm injuries every day.3 2. Mass shootings4 take place with alarming frequency in schools, in places of worship, at concerts, and in theaters, creating a general climate of fear and uncertainty that interferes with the enjoyment of fundamental human rights and causes psychological stress and mental harm, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, for both the direct victims and Americans more broadly.5 3. Youth, women, and individuals of color are disproportionately victimized by U.S. gun violence. An overwhelming majority of all child firearm deaths in high-income countries occur in the United States6 and firearm injuries are now the second leading cause of death among U.S. youth aged 15-29.7 Women in the United States are 16 times more likely to be killed with a gun than in economically-similar countries.8 Furthermore, African Americans of all ages are not only more likely to become the victim of firearm homicide than their white counterparts, but are also more likely to be shot by police and by individuals using so-called 1 See generally Harris Institute Launches an Initiative on Gun Violence and Human Rights, http://law.wustl.edu/harris/pages.aspx?id=11032. The Harris Institute and the Institute for Public Health hosted the conference Interdisciplinary and Human Rights Approaches to the Gun Violence Crisis in the United States in November 2018. The authors would like to thank the students of the Washington University School of Law Gun Violence and Human Rights research project for their research. We would also like to especially express our appreciation to the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence, the Center for American Progress, Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, and Everytown for Gun Safety. Their research and comprehensive reports were instrumental in our research. 2 CTR. FOR DISEASE CONTROL & PREVENTION (CDC), Web-based Inquiry Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS), www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/index.html [hereinafter CDC Reporting System]. 3 Id. 4 See Annex 1: Glossary of Terms for a discussion of the various definitions of mass shootings and mass murder. When applicable, this Report with include the definition used in a particular study within the corresponding footnote. 5 See infra Section II(C). 6 See infra ¶¶ 14-15. 7 Parsons et al., America’s Youth Under Fire, infra note 51. 8 See infra ¶¶ 18. 1 DRAFT “Stand Your Ground” laws9 and to witness gun violence, which is accompanied by significant ‘snow-ball’ effects on health, education, and community stability.10 4. The proliferation of firearms is also of concern. While the percentage of the population owning guns has decreased, the number of civilian firearms in circulation in the United States has grown.11 Indeed, by some estimates, 2009 marked the first year that the number of civilian guns in the United States surpassed the total U.S. population.12 Moreover, firearms, including assault rifles,13 and ammunition are becoming more dangerous and powerful than ever before.14 These factors have contributed to the export of U.S. gun violence to other countries, most notably to Central and South America and the Caribbean.15 5. School shootings are especially problematic since they occur with relative frequency and victimize a population that is often young, helpless, and captive, as most children are required to attend school by law, and shootings have repeatedly occurred in public schools that are operated by the state. Students across the country now live in fear of being shot at their schools. Studies clearly demonstrate the serious psychological impact and negative developmental effects of school shootings on students and others across the country, far beyond the school and district immediately affected.16 6. On February 14, 2018 a nineteen-year-old killed seventeen people in his former high school in Parkland, Florida with a legally purchased AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifle.17 The Parkland shooting led to a public outcry and to renewed demands for legislative action at both the state and federal levels.18 Yet government authorities have been generally unresponsive to public demand. At the state level, the Florida legislature refused to consider an assault weapons ban just days after the shooting.19 At the federal level, President Trump 9 See Annex 1: Glossary of Terms. 10 See infra Section II(B). 11 See Lisa M. Hepburn et al., The U.S. Gun Stock: Results from the 2004 National Firearms Survey, 13 INJURY PREVENTION 15 (2007). 12 See, e.g., Christopher Ingraham, There are now More Guns than People in the United States, WASH. POST (Oct. 5, 2015), www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/05/guns-in-the-united-states-one-for-every-man-woman-and- child-and-then-some/. 13 See Annex 1: Glossary of Terms. 14 Tara McKelvey, Why are US Mass Shootings Getting More Deadly?, BBC NEWS (Nov. 7, 2017), www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41890277; Anthony A. Braga & Philip J. Cook, The Association of Firearm Caliber With Likelihood of Death From Gunshot Injury in Criminal Assaults, JAMA NETWORK OPEN (July 27, 2018), jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2688536. 15 See infra Section II(C). 16 See infra Section II(C). 17 Julie Turkewitz, Patricia Mazzei, & Audra D. S. Burch, Suspect Confressed to Police that He Began Shooting Students ‘in the Hallways,’, N.Y. TIMES (Feb. 15, 2018), www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/us/florida- shooting.html?emc=edit_na_20180215&nl=breaking-news&nlid=66995365&ref=headline.