The reality is that people with mental illness are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators. America’s gun violence epidemic is bigger than mass shootingsAlthough tragedies like the Parkland shooting are distressing, mass shootings represent only a sliver of America’s gun violence profile. Of the more than 33,000 people who die by gun violence in the United States every year, 21,000 of those deaths are suicides, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the outsized attention Americans and the media pay to mass shootings doesn’t mean gun violence isn’t a pressing issue for everyday citizens. Over the course of our lifetimes, nearly every single American will know a gun violence victim.

Source: Huffington Post February 19, 2018 22:52 UTC