While the US ranks 35’th in the world in terms of gun deaths per capita, almost 49,000 people lost their lives to fire arm related suicides (26,328) and homicides (20,958) in 2023. The US is only behind Brazil and Mexico with almost 48,000 and 21,000 total fire arm related homicide deaths respectively. In the US, gun violence is the leading cause of death of young people 0-19 years of age and disproportionately impacting black and brown youth between the ages of 15-19. The fact is that the countries with the highest rates of homicide deaths in the world are in the Americas. The economic impact of this in the US is considerable and goes beyond conventional economic analysis. Moreover, armed violence and trafficking of high capacity firearms is seldom connected to a root cause of displacement and driver of immigration. This issue is significant and is a leading cause of economic instability across the americas and emanates from decisions and fire arm policies that are made in the US.
This issue is critical to SOCAP because of the economic impact that this is having on investments but also in how impact investment must confront factors that have significant economic impact on systems and countries. This is a destabilizing force that has gone undressed and often is not considered as a variable when assessing risk and economic impact. In fact, economic analysis and impact that accurately capture the issue have yet to be developed or even considered.
Our intent for this presentation is to highlight the importance to consider the impact of this issue across different sectors and to explore the potential role of impact investors in how to support efforts to reduce gun violence and gun trafficking.
