Wow! Gun deaths set to out strip automobile fatalities

[cthulu2016]

Gun deaths set to outstrip car fatalities for first time in 2015

Deaths from firearms are set to outstrip car fatalities for the first time, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and reported by Bloomberg News.

The CDC estimates that auto-related deaths--long on the decline as more motorists wear seat-belts and face harsher penalties for drunk driving--will fall to 32,000 in 2015. Deaths from firearms, which include suicides and accidents, are estimated to rise to 33,000 over the same period.

Every day, 85 Americans are shot dead, about 53 of them in suicides. This figure is still lower than 1993's peak in gun deaths (37,666), but has risen significantly since firearm deaths reached a low in 2000 (28,393). The data goes back to 1979.

Meanwhile, USA Today, which looked at FBI figures, reports that 774 people were killed between 2006 and 2010 by a mass killer, defined as a person who kills four or more people in one incident. The figures show that mass killers strike on average once every two weeks. A third of the 156 mass killings did not involve firearms, but rather fire, knife or other weapon. Almost all of the mass killers in those years were men, and their average age was 32. The dozens of deaths caused by mass killers represented about 1 percent of all homicides between 2006 and 2010.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/gun-deaths-set-outstrip-car-fatalities-first-time-152632492.html

[djean111]

1. In any event, people don't buy cars for the express purpose of killing other people with them.

That whole analogy is ridiculous.

[cthulu2016]

3. well, maybe not people you know

<a jest>

[Mojorabbit]

18. It looks like over half are suicides. I would like to see that addressed.

It shows a real need.

[jtuck004]

27. And several of the murders are simply by products of suicides,

not wanting to go alone, settling a score, etc.

This might be more important than we know. Maybe if we were addressing the depression and other issues that lead up to this, we might not see nearly as many murders. You and I might know, but a lot of these folks see no other solution, and maybe if we figured out a way to push treatment out, it would stop a number of the murders as well.

I was watching one of the reality shows where they filmed a medical marijuana store in California, and the owner suggests that millions of people who are smoking weed are not just casual, recreational users, but people self-treating their own depression. If true, that ignores a huge problem by beating up on people for mere possession and use of smaller amounts, makes us bullies instead of neighbors..

[Mojorabbit]

39. It would not surprise me at all

if people are self medicating. If we could get to those people who are depressed we could perhaps look to see a huge drop in deaths by firearms or any other method.

[jtuck004]

46. >If we could get to those people who are depressed < We are swimming in them.

They are at the checkout line with us, in traffic with us, in our office...and we won't find the few 'till we talk to the many.

It would really take a national effort at training and understanding, maybe try and affect the culture. Tens of millions of new interviews, laws, processes...in a culture which has no patience, thinks we can pass laws and dispense pills to solve our problems

On top of that, Democrats seem to be willing to use the lives of the elderly as a bargaining chip in a cheap-ass chess game, while we blow up innocent children with our drones. I doubt such people could provide a solution, or sell anyone that such people care about much of anyone, being that willing to dispose of our neighbors and others.

[Democracyinkind]

52. What you described is an often-overlooked consequence of mass gun ownership

The Swiss call it "Mitnahme-Selbstmorde" (something like "take-with-you-suicides". Surely this is the most often ignored yet by force of sheer statistical significance most important negative outcome of widespread gun ownership.

[bulloney]

21. Plus, a typical person will spend more time operating a vehicle than operating a firearm.

That by itself increases the chances of injury or death from a vehicle. The "vehicles-kill-more-people" line is nothing but one of many red herrings thrown out by the NRA and its stooges to get people off-target in the debate on firearm ownership.

[htuttle]

2. Why not license guns like cars?

[cthulu2016]

5. because cars aren't licensed?

[villager]

6. And yet -- the privilege to use one is!

n/t

[htuttle]

7. Really?

Are you driving around without license plates?

[jberryhill]

10. Registered, taxed, and insurance required (if it is going to be operated)

Even private sales of automobiles have to be reported to the state, also unlike guns.

[bobclark86]

31. Actually...

not if it's to be used on private property.

[libdem4life]

35. How precious...and a car on a non-op or an agricultural vehicle is OK on private property, too.

Actually.

[Atypical Liberal]

43. They already are.

If you operate a car on private property, no license, insurance, or registration is required.

[libdem4life]

47. And domestic terrorists don't usually fire rounds on kids on their own private property. That, too

would be illegal. Same with the vehicle ...kill someone on your private property with it...accident or on purpose...it's illegal. Pull it out onto the open road...even a tractor...and you have to obey the law.

[HereSince1628]

4. Poverty kills more than cars & I AM ALL IN FOR ENDING POVERTY!

Yessir. A.L.L. I.N.

[jtuck004]

28. +!000. Especially poverty caused by the financial sector and propped up by their lackeys

in government positions.

[NYC Liberal]

8. Because killing is not the intended use of a car;

it is the intended use of a firearm.

[jberryhill]

9. The improvements in auto safety are truly remarkable

Some countries, like China, tolerate outstanding auto fatality rates.

Of course, vehicles are designed to do other things than to kill, and they do a lot more of those other things. So there is a risk/reward tradeoff we accept with vehicles. Ambulances, for example, got more people to the ER last year than people who were injured by vehicles.

If having a car in your home was more likely to kill you than to take you places, we'd probably be looking at what we should do about cars.

On the other hand, a firearm purchased for personal protection is more likely to injure or kill one of the people it was ostensibly purchased to protect. And that's the reality.

[rustydog]

11. GREAT arguement! This guy drove his volvo into an elementary school

and killed 20 kids and 6 adults before driving over himself...
Yes, stick with your arguement..You must have been an ace in debate.

[cthulu2016]

14. Not much into that reading thing, eh?

I think if the CIA ever has to hide something very sensitive the body of a DU OP is just the place to do it.

[HereSince1628]

20. years ago some guy drove a car into the podium of a kkk rally...

it's listed under rampage killings and qualifies as a mass killing by vehicle...

guess he went out with heroic aspirations as a dragonslayer.

[JoeyT]

34. Yeah, but

only if he managed to run over the Grand Dragon.

[Glassunion]

41. [phone]

Choked on my Coffee on that one.

[libdem4life]

48. We got us some Gallows Humor .. indeed !

[RedCappedBandit]

12. Our shitty infrastructure relies on cars

Guns? Not so much.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

13. Cars are heavily regulated regarding safety, efficiency, emissions,

width, yearly licensing, eyesight of the driver, insurance, who can drive one and under what state of inebriation, how fast, etc. Why not regulate guns at least as much?

[bobclark86]

32. FOR USE IN PUBLIC!

I can own a car all I want and not have to do a darn thing to it if it's on private property.

[libdem4life]

36. Please proceed, then, Citizen. You'll get no quarrel from most of us here. LOL

[CottonBear]

40. Please proceed. n/t

[progressoid]

45. ALL CAPS!

ALL CAPS!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

51. Feel free to drive your homemade rocket fuel powered car from your driveway into your garage

I hope you understand that the law preventing you from taking that thing out in public is itself regulation. And good luck getting home owner's insurance if your insurance company finds out.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

15. Well, it WOULD cut down on pollution.

[kestrel91316]

16. Easy answer: The purpose of cars is not to terminate human life.

[JeffHead]

17. When cars kill too many people like the Ford Pinto we make them safer

With crumple zones, anti lock brakes, seat belts etc. When guns kill too many people we make them easier to get. Even people on the terrorist watch list can get them. Somebody tell me the logic in that.

[Bonhomme Richard]

19. So about 20,000 Americans kill themselves with....

a gun every year?
That sounds crazy to me.

[AtheistCrusader]

25. Approximately, yes.

[malthaussen]

22. Wow, I am amazed to see that.

For years I've used the "cars kill more people than guns" meme to illustrate the fact that our society will tolerate any number of deaths if it suits our convenience. Darn, now I'm gonna have to revise that.

-- Mal

[NCTraveler]

23. 62% are suicide. How very sad. We need to do something. nt.

[eallen]

30. That depends. Not every suicide is a wrong that should have been righted.

People are schizophrenic in their attitude to suicide. The same person who fights to legalize assisted suicide in the morning, in the afternoon says we have to do something about gun suicides.

Many suicides are tragic. Especially those committed by the young, under motivation that anyone with more life experience will tell them is temporary.

Some suicides are the rational choice of mature individuals facing insuperable difficulty, such as incurable disease that robs their ability ever again to live as they want. It is no accident that people over 75 commit suicide at higher rates than those younger. That's when many such diseases strike. Often in combination.

I can make a judgment about someone's suicide based on their life circumstances and motivation. But that they used a gun rather than a drug doesn't tell me much at all.

[pediatricmedic]

33. Legalize drugs, would cut way down on the other 38%

Considering most of the remaining firearm related fatalities are drug/gang related.

A big chunk of the rest are civil disputes, which are very dangerous to respond to.

[Ganja Ninja]

24. You know, maybe we should take guns away from people that have DUI's

Can't handle booze responsibly can't hand a gun responsibly either.

[libdem4life]

49. That's the law if you get a DUI ... can't pass a background check for a weapon ...

and that's the best scenario...can't get insurance, can't get a job, ... at least in California. Mother's Against Drunk Driving (MADD) should be the poster moms of this newest carnage.

[DeschutesRiver]

26. I hadn't realized that suicides were such a big component of the gun death numbers.

Deaths per year due to homicides and accidental deaths are 12,540.

Deaths per year which resulted from a mass killing are 103.

The remainder are people who commit suicide.

How do they define "accidents"?

[Glassunion]

42. Intent defines an accident.

[Tab]

29. And car fatalities are DOWN significantly as a result of safety and anti-DUI laws

Imagine if we had similarly restrictive laws on guns?

It's even more astonishing because most people are actively in a car most days, whereas the number of people with guns and actively use them are a much smaller subset, so for it to outstrip cars is taking some doing.

[libdem4life]

37. Tax the bejesus out of guns, and we'd be able to afford the regulation and the mayhem and death

they create. Annually. Show up and re-register them.

[ShadowLiberal]

38. And with that goes another NRA talking point

The NRA loves to say "if you want to restrict/ban guns then you need to do it to cars first, they kill more people".

[Atypical Liberal]

44. Cars have been ever-engineered to be safer, while guns have been ever-engineered to be more deadly.

[libdem4life]

50. True. More reason why guns should be treated as cars...speaking of the ability to regulate and

penalize actions around 300 million pieces of metal...cars or guns. Not in the engineering, in the purpose, intent and danger to human life.

Imagine if there were no speed laws, no wonderful highway system, no production rules, no smog rules, no orange warning signs, no "double the fine when in construction zone" for road workers, no faulty equipment rules, no seatbelts, no car seat carriers, no drug or alcohol absorption rules (DUIs), no uninsured motorist insurance, heck ...no insurance at all, etc.

That's what makes driving and being on the road safe. Same ultimately with guns. Just a matter of how many kiddies need to appear at the morgue first.

[upaloopa]

53. I think one of the ten myths that non gunners

believe in posted yesterday is that gun deaths are going down over the last ten years. That was from some prof with a credentials list 10 miles long.
This seems to say the opposite.