Firearm deaths by the numbers

[WVisHome 0]

I posted this in another thread, but figured it may get lost in there. Apologies in advance if anyone feels a new thread wasn't necessary.

 

 

 

 

 

These are the kinds of facts we need to bring to light.

 

 

 

 

Here's some informational math for you....

 

 

I haven't recently verified these numbers are exact, but from my previous research, they appear to be correct. The data was taken from either the FBI or CDC, can't remember.

 

 

All firearm deaths

•Number of deaths: 31,672

•Deaths per 100,000 population: 10.3

 

Firearm suicides

•Number of deaths: 19,392

•Deaths per 100,000 population: 6.3

 

 

That results in:

 

 

All firearm homicides

•Number of homicides: 12,235

•Homicides per 100,000 population: 4.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 people out of 100,000 are murdered with any kind of gun. (0.004%)

 

 

That's a 99.996% chance of not being murdered by ANY gun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now...of the 12,235 firearm homicides, only 323 were killed with any kind of rifle/long gun.

 

That brings the numbers to:

 

 

Only 1 person out of 1,000,000 (ONE IN A MILLION) is murdered with any kind of RIFLE. (0.000001%)

 

You have a 99.9999% likelihood of never being murdered with any kind of rifle, let alone a scary "black rifle".

[millsan1 3]

BAH!

 

You and your MATH and SCIENCE.

 

Don't you realize we need to do SOMETHING and NOW?

 

You sir, are a Racist, Fascist, nut job.

[PeteF 1,044]

Would you happen to know how many of the 12235 were justified?

(ie cop shoots hostage taker, homeowner shoots home invader etc)

 

[Zell959 40]

We must hold ourselves to a higher standard than our opponents when it comes to the statements we make regarding facts, figures and statistics, or risk undermining our ability to credibly question the validity of the disinformation they often spread

 

To that end, I respectfully submit that the information you've provided has two glaring flaws:

-You don't include mention of what year(s) your data is from

-It realy is important to know if the information came from the CDC or the FBI or somewhere else.

 

The two flaws collectively mean that someone can't [easily] confirm your figures for themselves, which reduces the potential impact of the numbers by making it no different than the unsourced "take our word for it" statistics that come out of the anti's camp. I do believe your numbers are probably right, as I did my own search of the 2009 firearms deaths off of the CDC website and found a similar rate of 9.83, but you really need to have proper sources cited to credibly use the word "facts" [if you honestly put yourself in the shoes of someone that doesn't already agree with you].

[Qel Hoth 33]

Numbers are high for 2007-2011. 2008-2001 have been under 10,000 firearm homicides.

 

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-8

[WVisHome 0]

Point taken.

 

 

Data is from the CDC National Vital Statistics Report (NVSR) “Deaths: Final

Data for 2010.”

 

 

The data can be found here:

 

http://www.cdc.gov/n...010_release.pdf

 

 

 

You're right, I used inaccurate data.

 

 

The "Assault (homicide) by discharge of firearms" number is lower at 11,078. This gives a death rate per 100,000 of 3.6 people. (Both of these figures pulled directly from the PDF).

 

 

That's 3.6 of every 100,000 people killed by any type of firearm according to the CDC.

 

 

 

The data from the CDC doesn't break down the type of firearm. That data can be taken from the FBI.

 

http://www.fbi.gov/a.../10shrtbl11.xls

 

and here:

 

http://www.fbi.gov/a.../10shrtbl08.xls

 

 

(Now, here's the tricky part... the FBI and the CDC numbers don't match. The FBI lists 8,775 homicides by firearm)

 

Per the FBI,

 

In 2010, there were 8,775 homicides by firearm, of which only 358 were by any kind of "rifle".

 

 

 

So, if we use the FBI data, assuming the 2010 US population to be 308,745,538 (as per the 2010 Census on Wikipedia)

 

 

 

Total Homicides (all firearms): 8,775

Homicide Rate Per 100,000 (all firearms): 2.8 people

 

Total Homicides (RIFLE only): 358

Homicide Rate Per 100,000 (RIFLE only): 0.11 people (Since 0.1 people doesn't make sense...)

Homicide Rate Per 1,000,000 (RIFLE only): 1.1 people

 

 

 

Also, according to this data in the following link, there were 232 "justifiable homicides by private citizen" in 2010, which should be taken off of the 8,775 number.

 

http://www.fbi.gov/a.../10shrtbl15.xls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most interesting thing I just noticed....since 2006, firearm homicides have been steadily falling. In the mean time, justifiable homicide by firearm has been ticking up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, my "inaccurate" numbers turned out to be close enough, but your point is well taken. It's MUCH harder to argue against something like this when you have the facts available for checking.

[Twospot 38]

Great thread!

[Zell959 40]

All in all, my "inaccurate" numbers turned out to be close enough, but your point is well taken. It's MUCH harder to argue against something like this when you have the facts available for checking.

 

Really good job with the revision. Thumbs up to you for some really solid work.

[SpacemanFry 51]

It's also important to get number for the rest of the homicides and other crimes. We must not play just the antis game of talking about firearm related homicides when we should be talking about homicides and crime in general regardless of the weapon or method used.

[incinerator950 0]

I really want to just link the topic out of lazyiness, but I'll eventually let my brain cells wake up and then I'll share the links around.