"Firearm injuries cost $174 billion in the United States in 2010 and the government's firearm injury bill alone exceeded $12 billion. PIRE researcher Ted Miller estimates annual firearm injury costs average $645 per gun in America. The costs include medical and mental health care costs, criminal justice costs, wage losses, and the value of pain, suffering and lost quality of life. Violence - assaults and suicide acts - dominated the costs."
An amazing cost to our society. An amazing shared cost to all of us. That being said, if your loved one is the one who is shot, or even the one sent to prison, how does one measure the cost then?Lets stick with the idea of cost. Who is paying? I am. You are. We all are. Taxes pay for law enforcement, courts, and prisons. Health and mental health care is paid for by employers, individuals or the government filtered through insurance companies. I am going out on a limb here and guessing that presenting in the emergency room with a gunshot wound is a fairly expensive affair. Expensive affairs in the realm of healthcare drive up the general costs of healthcare: We all pay for that one way or another.
Pass along the $645 cost per year as a licensing fee for the owner of the weapon. It could be further broken down; perhaps hunting rifles and double barrel shotguns could be taxes at a lower rate while handguns and assault rifles could be taxed at a rate that covers the proportional damage they do to our society.
Exercising your rights? That is great. Pay for it. Don't expect everyone else to pay for it!
The link be low will take you to several charts with lots of details.
The Cost of Gun Violence | Children's Safety Network:
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