In the United States alone, in one 12-​month period, over 18,000 people shot themselves to death.

Time magazine of July 17, 1989, reported that in the first week of May 1989, 464 people were shot to death in the United States alone. “This year more than 30,000 others will share their fate,” Time said. The magazine reported that “more Americans die of gunshot wounds every two years than have died to date of AIDS. Similarly, guns take more American lives in two years than did the entire Viet Nam War.”