DESVARIEUX: According to a recent study by the American Journal of Medicine, countries with the highest share of gun ownership actually have the highest firearms-related deaths.
Here to discuss the significance of this study is Ladd Everitt. He is the director of communications of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
Thanks for being with us, Ladd. . .
Can you summarize the findings from The American Journal of Medicine about the relationship between firearm ownership and firearms-related deaths?

EVERITT: Yeah, well, they looked at a number of different states. It was a very far-reaching study, particularly for study this type, and they did find positive correlations in terms of the, you know, level of gun ownerships, less gun ownership in the home and communities, and then in terms of levels of gun homicide and also gun suicide. And that confirmed previous studies that we've seen in this area that showed similar findings.

DESVARIEUX: How does gun violence in the U.S. compare what other countries?

EVERITT: It's astronomically higher, particularly when you compare it to other developed countries and other high-income nations. You know, the pattern typically is the U.S. has a higher overall homicide rate, and then when you look specifically at the gun death rate, our gun death rate is typically astronomically higher than other democracies' and high-income nations'.

High gun ownership makes countries less safe, US study finds
Guns do not make a nation safer, say US doctors who have compared the rate of firearms-related deaths in countries where many people own guns with the death rate in countries where gun ownership is rare.

Their findings, published Wednesday in the prestigious American Journal of Medicine, debunk the historic belief among many people in the United States that guns make a country safer, they say. On the contrary, the US, with the most guns per head in the world, has the highest rate of deaths from firearms, while Japan, which has the lowest rate of gun ownership, has the least.

The journal has fast-tracked publication of the study because of the shootings at the Washington navy yard. It was originally scheduled for later this week.

It follows an emotional appeal from a doctor at the trauma center in Washington where the victims of Aaron Alexis' random violence were taken. "I would like you to put my trauma center out of business," Janis Orlowski, chief medical officer at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, told reporters in the aftermath of the massacre. "I would like to not be an expert on gunshots. Let's get rid of this. This is not America."