The US has the world's highest gun death rate of eleven gun deaths per 100,000 people per year. This is by far the highest gun death rate of any comparable country in the world, and is four times higher than the second highest country of Switzerland.

The gun homicide rate in the US is drastically higher than every other comparable country. Chile is second, but is still less than half of the US gun homicide rate. The US gun homicide rate is 25 times higher than other comparable countries combined.

There is little doubt that more guns result in more gun violence. Regions with higher gun ownership are regions with higher gun violence. Conversely, regions with lower gun ownership are regions with lower gun violence. The result is the same whether you look at regions within the US by state, or globally by country, or whether you measure the amount of guns as guns per person, or % of population who own a gun. More guns results in more gun violence.

Within the US, Alaska has the highest rate of gun deaths of 22 per 100,000 people per year. The top ten US states with the highest gun ownership show a pretty good correlation with the highest gun violence states. Of the nine states with the highest gun death rates, seven of them are also in the top ten states for gun ownership. Conversely, of the eleven states with the lowest gun death rates, seven of them are also in the bottom ten states for gun ownership.

Massachusetts has the lowest level of gun violence for any US state, but that does not make it "safe." Its gun death rate of 3.3 per 100,000 people per year is higher than every other comparable country to the US. Switzerland comes closest at 2.8 gun deaths per 100,000 people per year.

The same correlation of more guns result in more gun violence applies globally as well. The US leads the world in guns per capita at 1.2 guns per person. And it leads the world in highest rate of gun deaths at 11 per 100,000 people. In examining other countries, a high guns per capita rate does correspond to a high rate of gun deaths. Of the top five countries with the highest number of guns per capita (excluding the US), three of them are in the top five in gun death rates. And the five lowest countries in guns per capita directly correspond to the five lowest gun death rates. Chile is an outlier as it has a mid-level of guns per capita, but is top give in gun death rate.

Mass shootings surged in 2021 to almost 700 during the year. Mass shootings get a tremendous amount of attention due to their horrific nature and often result in protests around the country for sensible gun laws. But as awful as mass shootings are, they represent about only about 1% of the total gun deaths in the US every year. And they happen much more frequently than most realize, with over one mass shooting per day in 2020 and 2021 (defined by Gun Violence Archive as 4 or more victims not including the shooter). Gun violence in America is so widespread, that eliminating all mass shootings, although a highly worthy cause, would not reduce gun violence significantly.