Why Gun Violence is a Human Rights Crisis

GUNVIOLENCE

Human rights are basic rights and freedoms that all people are entitled to regardless of nationality, sex, national or ethnic origin, race, religion, language, or other status.

Human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life, liberty and freedom of expression; and social, cultural and economic rights including the right to participate in culture, the right to food, and the right to work and receive an education.Human rights are protected and upheld by international and national laws and treaties.

Yet in America, guns kill more than 30,000 men, women and children every single year.

Whether you’re walking down the street, in a school or at church no place is truly safe.

Among high-income countries, the United States accounts for

  • 80% of all firearm deaths
  • 86% of women killed by firearms
  • and 87% of all children up to the age of 14 who are killed by firearms

The United States is a party to two of the international human rights treaties – the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the U.S. government has clear and urgent obligations to protect the people living in this country from gun violence. But the U.S. has a patchwork of inconsistent and inadequate federal and state gun control laws and has failed to take all measures necessary to prevent gun violence.

The lack of legislation action, to reduce this man-made epidemic continues to hold our country at gunpoint and prevent us from exercising our human rights.

Which is why, we join the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) is the global movement against gun violence, a network of 800+ civil society organizations and individuals in 100 countries to continue to elevate the need for legislative intervention to prevent the loss of even one more life to gun violence. ACT NOW

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8 thoughts on “Why Gun Violence is a Human Rights Crisis

  1. 30'000 deaths per year is statistically insignificant, there were 32'000 deaths related to motor vehicle accidents in 2014, and that's still barely noticable among 320′611′133 people living in the US. This article is BS.

  2. You know what else is a "human right?" Self defense. Would you deny a gazelle its' horns to defend against a lion? Then why deny a human the very best tool to defend them self against another, two legged predator? (Keep in mind, yes, I do donate to Amnesty Int…)

  3. For one thing, gun murders were 9800 for the last year tabulated, 2014. Two, according to the gun banners and the CDC who did research at the behest of President Obama, citizens use firearms, mostly without firing a shot because the criminal is a coward, about 322,000 times a year. The remainder are suicides, and most are because of anti -depressants. They would kill themselves any way. Also, get your numbers right. We rank 112 worldwide in gun deaths, yet we have the most. We're actually a safer society per capita than most countries. Stop lying.

  4. This sucks that I'm going to have to stop my annual donation.

    Gun rights are key to protection for a free and open society from oppression.

  5. Please, don't kill your people
    I cry especially for the children killed in the schools
    Stop all wars that your government does
    In your place guys, i would do something with lobbies that manipulate you