Here's the good news: America, overall, is a much less violent place than it used to be. Our reported violent-crime rate is almost half what it was in 1991. But here's the bad: Mass shootings haven't decreased. In fact, they've become even deadlier.
In 2010, the World Health Organization found that the United States' gun-homicide rates were more than 25 times higher than in any other high-income country.
And that was before Las Vegas. And before Parkland, Florida. We've witnessed 19 of the 30 deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history during the past decade.
It isn't just about murders. The suicide rate has been skyrocketing as well, reaching a 30-year high in 2016. More than half of those suicides were with firearms.
Today, high school and middle school students have risen up in protests and marches after the Parkland shooting, demanding that something must be done.
But what?
We looked at 47 ideas to reduce gun violence, weighing the results of academic research and the analysis of experts.
Some ideas are good. They have a decent shot at saving lives. Some are messy, with the potential benefits weighed down by potential costs. Some are ineffective, doing little to nothing to combat gun violence. And some are just plain ugly, more likely to result in more death and injury, rather than less. See the whole list, beginning on page 22.
— DANIEL WALTERS and MITCH RYALS, section editors
