America’s great void: The menacing legacy of gun culture in the U.S.

Gun culture is deeply rooted in the traditional heritage of the U.S., with hundreds of thousands of legal gun stores open for business in the country, 10 times more than there are McDonald's restaurants. Today, the country is home to nearly 400 million guns, which is far more than its 330-million population.

The frequent incidents of gun violence pose a severe challenge to U.S. society. According to U.S. media, more Americans have died from guns since 1975 (more than 1.5 million), than in all the wars in U.S. history combined—going back to the Revolutionary War.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, more than 41,500 Americans died from gun violence in 2020, an average of more than 110 a day, which is a record. There have been 592 mass shootings nationwide, an average of more than 1.6 a day. Times magazine called 2020 one of America's most violent years in decades.