Mother Jones conducted a joint investigation with Ted Miller, a health economist at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Based on Miller's work identifying and quantifying the societal impacts of gun violence, the annual price tag comes to more that $229 billion a year (based on 2012 data). The price tag includes $8.6 billion in direct spending -- from emergency care and other medical expenses to court and prison costs -- as well as $221 billion in less tangible "indirect" costs, which include impacts on productivity and quality of life for victims and their communities. The largest share of this $229 billion overall cost is the $169 billion in lost quality of life. Overall, gun violence costs more than $700 per American a year.
Ted Miller assumes that the average American"s life is worth about $6.2 million. That's a conservative estimate, as the Environmental Protection Agency's current statistical value for a life is $7.9 million and the Department of Transportation's is $9.2 million.
The following is how Mother Jones and Miller break down the cost of one murder: police response and investigation - $2,200 --- EMT and transport to hospital - $450 --- Victim's hospital expenses - $10,700 --- Mental-health treatment for victim's family - $11,600 --- Perpetrator is charged and sentenced - $2,300 --- Prison time for perpetrator - $414,000. Taxpayers pay 87% of the overall cost.
We can personalize these gun violence costs by looking at a few impacts on individuals. 1. Philip Russo's wife, Shelia Lynn Russo, a 47-year-old administrator, was killed on February 20, 2014 by a woman named Cherie Rhoades, who started firing wildly, angry about an eviction proceeding. Shelia's $60,00 annual salary constituted the majority of the household income. Although Philip lost his part-time job at the local county jail where Cherie Rhoades was being held and found a new job as a security guard, he had lost about $83,000 in household income by mid-2015.
2. Pamela Bosley incurred about $23,500 in medical care and counseling for her family after her 18-year-old son, Terrell, was shot to death on Chicago's south Side while unloading a drum set from a van on April 4, 2006. The few hours that Terrell clung to life in a hospital cost about $10,000, which was mostly covered by insurance. Pamela spent thousands of dollars on therapy and antidepressants for herself and another family member who was hospitalized at one point for depression. She took a six-month leave of absence from her job as a bank teller out of trauma induced by coworker's talking about their kids and the memories it brought back about Terrell.
3. On December 1, 2005, BJ Ayers ' 18-year-old son, Brett, sat down in a chair and fired a bullet into his head. He was rushed to a hospital, where he died. The $35,000 in emergency care costs were paid for by the hospital's "benevolent fund." Four years later, BJ's 26-year-old son, Beau, also committed suicide with a gun. His girlfriend and their then one-year-old son lost the a salary of $37,000 from Beau's construction job.
4. On July 5, 2013, Antonius Wiriadjaja was walking in his Brooklyn neighborhood, when a stray bullet from a man shooting at his ex-lover, pierced Wiriadjaja's chest and lodged in his stomach. His medical and mental health treatments have totaled about $169,000, most of which have been covered by his health insurance; however, Antonius's deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses cost more than $20,000 and ate up all his savings.
Compounding the gun tragedy, the man who helped save Wiriadjaja's life by compressing his wound, was shot and killed in South Carolina in 2014.
5. On May 27, 2010, Kamari Ridgle had just left a liquor store in Richmond, California, when a car pulled up behind him and shots rang out. He was hit 22 times before the perpetrators drove away. Kamari would have a dozen surgeries, including some to remove bullets. The total cost of caring for Kamari was $1.5 million, including a $25,00 Medevac ride. Three men were tried for attempted murder and all three received long prison sentences, imposing a heavy cost on taxpayers for prison incarceration.
Up to this point we have been dealing primarily with monetary costs; however guns kill 33,000 Americans and injure 80,000 a year. Guns are used in 70% of homicides and more than 50% of suicides in the United States. 84% of gun homicide victims and 86% of gun suicide victims are men. Among 15- to 24-year-olds, gun deaths are about to surpass car accidents as the leading cause of death. (Source of the above: "What Does Gun Violence Really Cost?" Mother Jones, May/June 2015.)
No comments:
Post a Comment