Gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis.

It goes beyond the mass shootings that grab the nation’s attention. Every day, gun violence takes lives from communities all across the country in the form of suicides, unintentional shootings, and interpersonal conflicts that become fatal due to easy access to guns.

In this country, an average of 35,000 people are killed with guns every year—96 each day.

Yet this violence is not inevitable. Every other developed nation in the world does a better job of protecting its people from gun violence. The gun murder rate in the United States is 25 times higher than it is in peer nations; and American teenagers are 82 times more likely to die from a gun homicide than their international peers.

There is no single, simple solution to reducing gun violence in this country. However, there are a number of common-sense steps that would be a great place to start—steps that could be taken right now.

• Ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines
• Enable the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research gun violence as a public health issue
• Require background checks for all gun sales
• Support local violence prevention and intervention programs
• Disarm all domestic abusers
• Make extreme risk protection orders available in every state