; the highest number of gun deaths in nearly 50 years. The rate of deaths—12 fatal shootings per 100,000 residents—is also at the highest point since the mid-1990s. Approximately 20 veterans a day commit suicide nationwide. Every day, 47 children and teens are shot, and each gun injury and fatality results in trauma to family members and loved ones. More people have died from guns in the United States since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in United States history. (6) A World Health Organization report estimates that interpersonal violence within the United States costs approximately $300 billion annually, not including war-related costs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the total economic cost of child abuse and neglect is estimated at $124 billion each year. (7) According to a report by the Institute of Economics and Peace, which measures the economic impact of violence and conflict to the global economy, the economic impact of violence to the global economy was $14.76 trillion in 2017. The report also found that the regional impact of violence in North America, 99 percent of which can be attributed to the United States, amounted to $2.73 trillion in 2017. (8) A 2015 study by the Institute for Economics and Peace reports conservative estimates that 12 percent of the gross domestic product of the United States was spent on containing violence. The study included government, corporate, and individual expenditures, regardless of whether the expenditure was related to international affairs such as offshore military activities, or domestic spending such as dealing with crime and the consequences of crime. (9) Violence prevention is cost effective. For every dollar spent on violence prevention and peacebuilding, thousands of lives and dollars are saved. Research indicates that investing early to prevent conflicts from escalating into violent crises is, on average, 60 times more cost effective than intervening after violence erupts. The philosophy and techniques of nonviolence and