There are less than 40,000 gun related deaths per year by firearms equalling less than .0002% of our population. Seriously, look it up. I did. In 2017, of the 321 Million people in the US, only 36,247 died from a firearm. That’s .000112% of the population. Statistically speaking, this is insignificant by itself. However, let’s break that down a bit further…
In 2015, of the 36,247 deaths by firearms, 22,018 (60.7%) of those deaths are by suicide. That leaves 14,229 for death by other means. This will include law enforcement, accidental, homicide, and “unknown” causes.
So technically, “gun violence” was not 36,247, but at most 14,229. A whopping .000044% of our population. Still too many? Let’s look at some other causes of death in 2015:
• 57,062 people died from the flu and pneumonia.
• 52,404 died from drugs overdose
• 44,193 died from suicide (and many thousands more would have, had their attempts not failed)
• 35,092 died in traffic fatalities (exceeding gun deaths even if you include suicide).
Now it gets good:
• 250,000+ (and growing) people die each year from preventable medical errors. You are safer walking in the worst areas of Chicago than you are when you are in a hospital!
• 233,075 people died from heart disease. It’s time to stop the double cheeseburgers!
So what is the point? If the anti-gun movement focused their attention on heart disease, just a 16% decrease in cardiac deaths would save the same the number of lives annually of all gun-related deaths (including suicide, law enforcement, etc.). A 10% reduction in medical errors would be almost 70% of the total number of gun deaths. How about focusing on providing mental healths services to those in need to address drugs and suicide? Simple and easily reducable numbers! So why are we focusing so hard on arguing about gun laws and gun bans, that will result in both good AND bad repercussions (like law abiding citizens no longer having the ability to defend themselves), when we could be focusing on things that will result in nothing more than saved lives?
Sources:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2015 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released December, 2016. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2015, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed at http://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10.html on Oct 5, 2017 9:13:38 AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year
https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/suicide/index.shtml