In 2015, there were 13,286 gun deaths in the USA(1) without counting suicide. There are about 42,773 suicides per year(2) and about about 60%, or 25,663, are with guns(3). This would mean there were about 38,949 total gun deaths in 2015. Of those, about 760 would have been unintentional based on the 2005-2010 average(4), because it's hard to find actual data. However, in 2015, one gun death per week was attributed to toddlers(5). Furthermore, 1,186 people were killed by the cops in 2015(6), and most of them would have been killed with guns.

So let's break this down.

~38,949 gun deaths in 2015.

Consisting of:

~25,663 suicides.

~11,340 homicides.

~1,186 killed by police.

~760 accidental shootings.

This is for a total population of about 320 million with access to about one gun per person in the country(7). Yet, any single person only has ~0.0000354375% chance of being killed by a gun as a victim of homicide. That's odds of 1 in 28,218. That same person is x2.26 as likely to kill themselves with one on purpose, which is odds of 1 in 12,485.

For comparison, there were 47,055 overdoses in 2014, the latest numbers I can find. 18,893 were from doctor prescribed opiates, which gave everyone in the country a 1 in 16,937 chance of dying from opiates given out by a doctor(8).

Preventable health care harm, everything from malpractice to superbug infections to medication reactions, cause ~400k early deaths each year, which gives everyone a 1 in 800 chance of dying from 'medical care'(9).

All these numbers are rough estimates. We don't know for sure how many people or guns are in the country. Any such official numbers released by the government are outdated by the time they're seen because gun sales and births don't just stop while that info is being processed. There are also incidents of all types that don't get reported. I'm also only looking at deaths and not injuries, nor do I consider the socioeconomic, psychological, and cultural differences between places like Chicago with a high murder rate and rural towns with low murder rates.

So how do you prevent 'gun deaths'? On the most basic level, it'd be not to kill oneself with a gun. I don't say that because I'm a heartless asshole, but because simple math applied to the 2015 stats shows that ~65.88% of gun deaths that year were suicides. Homicides made up only ~29.11% of gun deaths.

On a primary social level, it would be to destigmatize mental health issues and use treatments that don't cause suicide(10). Maybe, then we'd also stop wondering why the suicide rate is going up while more people are prescribed anti-psychotics(11)(12).

On a secondary level, it would be for cops to stop chasing people for petty crimes and go after real bad guys. Legalization seems to help with violent crime, and since a lot of violent crime is committed with guns, it should help prevent gun deaths in the long term(13). Furthermore, drug addiction needs to be treated as a social problem instead of a criminal problem. Gangs won't fight over stuff there's not a market for and will move to something else. Let the cops kill assholes over human trafficking or weapons smuggling instead of some guy with less than a joint(14).

And third, but not at all least, we need more safety training. It's the parent's fault if their kid gets hold of a gun. Someone doesn't need a gun if they can't keep it away from small children and teach older children to respect them. We need gun safety classes made more available. Not licenses. Classes. For everyone. They shouldn't be tied to legal gun ownership, because the whole point is to get everyone involved and learning. This also goes for cops. The number of people gunned down by police is unacceptable and deadly force is being used in instances in which it is unneeded(15). This is leading to a feedback loop in which the less level headed citizens seem to be attacking cops in retaliation(16). How easy it is for everyone to forget that violence breeds violence.

The phrase 'guns kill' is simply untrue . It's the use of guns by people that kill, just like it's the use of medications and cars that kill and not the pill or vehicle itself. Pills and vehicles are like guns and do nothing without interaction. In the majority of gun death instances, it's the person who has killed themselves, and mental illness can be treated as long as the real cause is identified(17). Most of the remaining instances are of crime, which can be dealt with in ways that don't involve blanket laws that cause more disruption than good. Criminals can be stopped by cops, or citizens with permits and in open carry states. Even the handful of accidental deaths involved people doing something to a gun. The gun didn't spontaneously go off and kill a person without some sort of interaction. Making safety courses more readily available would decrease accidents and instill more respect in people for the weapon they hold in their hand.

Not only is gun ownership protected in the Constitution, not only are there more dangerous things to worry about, but is this really a world you'd want to be unarmed in? I don't mean general violence. For instance, Japan has very strict gun laws, but has started flexing their military(18). What if they get in a war and are invaded? How will their population defend itself? Not only do they not have any firearms, but they've been sanitized from contact with them, giving them little chance of using weapons if the regular military or police were to arm citizens, or if they captured weapons from the enemy. We, the USA, have the largest military in the world, but it's stretched thin in more than 100 countries(19). A two front war destroys most countries. What would be the result of war on several fronts should things go south with Russia and China? As our 'leaders' seem determined to make happen(20)(21). Should the citizens be left defenseless should a thin military line between this country and a pissed off world break? I don't think so. I think we need a logical approach to gun control instead of emotional scaremongering.

Sources:

1. Guns in the US: Statistics Behind the Violence: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34996604

2. Suicide Statistics: https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/

3. Gun Deaths Are Mostly Suicides: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/gun-deaths-are-mostly-suicides.html?_r=0

4. Statistics on Gun Deaths and Injuries: http://smartgunlaws.org/gun-deaths-and-injuries-statistics/

5. Toddlers in America have Accidentally Shot One Person a Week in 2015: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11932821/toddler-shooting-gun-controls-america.html

6. How Many Police Killed in 2015: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/12/28/3735190/killed-by-police-2015/

7. There Are Now More Guns Than People in the US: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/10/05/guns-in-the-united-states-one-for-every-man-woman-and-child-and-then-some/

8. Opiate Addiction Facts: http://www.asam.org/docs/default-source/advocacy/opioid-addiction-disease-facts-figures.pdf

9. A New Evidence Based Estimate of Patient Harms Associated with Hospital Care: http://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Fulltext/2013/09000/A_New,_Evidence_based_Estimate_of_Patient_Harms.2.aspx

10. 7 Antidepressant Side Effects: http://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/drug-side-effects.aspx

11. Anti-psychotic Drug Use Still Increasing Among Children and Teens: https://www.cchrint.org/2015/07/16/antipsychotic-drug-use-still-increasing-among-children-teens/

12. Suicide Rates Up: http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/22/health/suicide-rates-rise/

13. Marijuana Legalization in Colorado: One Year Status Report: http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/2015/01/marijuana-legalization-colorado-one-year-status-report

14. SWAT Team Kills Man Over $2 in Weed: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/swat-team-raids-home-kills-man-over-2-worth-pot-informant-exposes-police-cover

15. Bad Cops: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fJ-6CEhnMk

16. Houston Deputy Shot in Ambush Attack: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/15/us/houston-deputy-shot-in-ambush-at-traffic-stop.html?_r=0

17. A Word or Two About My Thyroid: http://www.authorsden.com/visit/viewarticle.asp?id=75396&authorid=83261

18. Japan Flexing Military Muscle to Counter Rising China: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/world/asia/japan-expands-its-regional-military-role.html

19. Are the Special Forces Stretched Too Thin: http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a20242/invisible-warriors/

20. Nevermind the US, Russia's the One Losing Patience: https://www.rt.com/news/347579-russia-us-patience-gerasimov/

21. Things Heat Up Near South China Sea: https://theaviationist.com/2016/06/19/things-heat-up-near-south-china-sea-two-u-s-aircraft-carriers-b-52s-and-ea-18g-growler-detachment/