61,000 nonfatal firearm related injuries + 12,000 firearm related homicides = 73,000 firearm related injuries and homicides. Let's go back up to the 208,800,00 and find the percentage. 61,000/208,800,000 = 0.000292145594 or, in percentage terms, 0.0292145594% and just to make that clear, that's roughly 3 hundredths of 1%.

We are a populous country and our firearms are numerous (see above numbers.) Yes, we have a higher firearm related death rate (even if you don't include suicides) than most other industrial countries (except, ya know, like Russia or Brazil.) We also have more firearms per capita than all other countries out there (again, see above numbers.) Yet when compared to the number of firearm owners and the population of the United States, firearm related injuries and homicides are a small amount.

I'm not saying there aren't steps that we can take to improve on the rate of firearm related injuries and homicides because this is such a small number. I am saying that pushing gun control measures impacts an extremely small amount of criminals and a large amount of law abiding gun owners. I want all violent crime to go down, not just the 8% (number taken from 2009) related to firearms. I want all homicides to go down.

We can take firearm related steps, like strengthening the FBI run NICS background check by giving it some teeth. If you fail to pass the NICS background check due to violent felon reasons or something similar, dispatch the police and charge that person who was trying to buy firearms illegally. Likewise, cracking down on the straw purchasers would reduce the amount of firearms finding their way into criminal hands.