As The Economist notes:
In 2007 the Small Arms Survey estimated that 270 million guns were in the hands of American civilians, or 0.9 per person. That number has almost surely risen since. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives publishes annual data on how many guns are manufactured and (legally) imported in the United States. Their figures suggest a sharp increase in gun sales since Barack Obama was elected president. In 2013 about 16 million new guns entered circulation, FBI background checks corroborate this trend.You read that correctly, almost one gun per person in the United States. And what are all these people doing with these guns... Well to name a few:
Gun related suicides accounted for 64% of all gun deaths in 2012
African Americans are twice as likely to be killed by guns than whites
Mass shootings has tripled since 2011
Of course this obviously comes with a price of lost lives, but this also comes to a cost to society, particularly tax payers. About $8.6 billion dollars a year is spent on emergency responses. And with more guns this cost is only going to increase. In California, the direct costs of hospital use for firearm assault injuries alone was estimated at $87.4 million in 2010. 65% of these costs were borne by taxpayers.