New data on death rates in US including firearms

[hso]

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/about/major/dvs/mortdata.htm

The 2001 data is the latest complet data on deaths in the US. Tables 18 and 19 address the firearms deaths. The tables include deaths due to "legal intervention" i.e. law enforcement shootings, a statistic that many have asked if the numbers of criminals killed by LE contribute significantly to the total number of firearms deaths. FYI of the ~30,000 firearms related deaths in 2001 LE deaths contributed ~800 to that total (less than 2.5%)

 

[erik the bold]

Excellent informational find!

Based on my observations, it looks like as compared to the 2.4 million deaths in 2001, firearms account for a pretty small number:

Accidental discharges-------- 802 -------.33%
Discharge, unknown intent --- 231-------.10%
Assault, homicide ----------- 11,348-----.47%
Suicide --------------------- 16,869-----.70%
Legal intervention ----------- 396--------.17%

Total ----------------------- 29,646-----1.23%

According to this data, keep up with your flu/pneumonia shots and colon/prostate exams.
You're twice as likely to have colon or prostate cancer or have complications with the flu/pneumonia

 

[waktasz]

Wow I was just looking for stats like these last night. Was trying to convince an anti that you are NOT more likely to accidently shoot yourself than you are to use a gun to defend yourself.

check out this crap

[23:53] <Sydarm> what in earth are the odds of u being the specific target where a gun would save ur life
[23:53] <Sydarm> if he fires first and does not miss who gives a s***
[23:53] <Sydarm> i would argue that an accident is far more likely

edit: ment to say not more likely to shoot yourself in an accident

 

[antsi]

< Quote < Was trying to convince an anti that you are NOT less likely to accidently shoot yourself than you are to use a gun to defend yourself. >

Yeah, there was an extremely misleading research paper on this a while back. Lots of people still quote it, even though the study's own author now repudiates his findings.

The mistake in the research methodology was in their definitions.

The only thing they counted as a defensive use of a firearm was when the attacker was shot and killed. If someone drew down on an assailant, or fired and missed, or fired and hit nonlethally, or the assailant saw the intended victim was armed and ran away - none of those scenarios were counted as instances of self-defense with a firearm.

On the other hand, they included suicides in the "you get shot with your own gun" category. This accounted for the vast majority of the 'gun owner gets killed' scenarios. But obviously this is something that is under the gun owner's control.

The scenarios which the anti's always imagine - accidentally killing yourself with your own gun, or having a criminal break into your house and kill you with your own gun - were vanishingly rare. But that doesn't stop the anti's from quoting this article and pretending that these kind of deaths are common.

 

[cuchulainn]

FYI, you can compare these numbers to past CDC data using

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/