The "Gun Violence Epidemic"

[Lurks Often]

Let's review the number of total murders since 1960:
The number of murders per year hasn't been this low since 1969:
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm

Now let's review gun deaths in 2013 against the total number of people that died that year:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

In 2013 there were 2.6 million total deaths and 11,208 homicides using a firearm, so that means homicides committed with a firearm amounted to 0.43 percent of the deaths in the United States.
If we add suicides (21,175 using a firearm) the number of deaths from homicide and suicide with a firearm was 1.25 percent of the deaths. The CDC data also shows that roughly just under a third of homicides (4,913) in the U.S. were committed either by something other then firearm or by an unspecified method. We can only speculate on how many of those 21,175 people would have found an alternative method of committing suicide.

Let's look at the murder rate, regardless of method, worldwide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate#By_country

Sorted by rate, the U.S. comes in at 111, sorted by total, the U.S. is 8th with Brazil and India having 3 times the total number of murders.

[NYC_SKP]

1. 2013: 4.5 muders/100,000 is lowest rate EVER! There is no "Gun Violence Epidemic".

Quite the opposite.

The second table in your first link that shows rates since 1960 has 2013 beating every other year for lowest murder rate.

It just goes to show that gun controllers don't need facts to continue to want to control guns, and neither do legislators.

[pablo_marmol]

4. But what would The Controllers do without this nifty lie?

The overuse of this phrase alone is a big part of the reason that the U.S. public is dead wrong in thinking that gun violence is on the rise.

This morning I bought Steven Pinker's 696 page book "The Better Angels of our Nature". (Why Violence Has Declined) While I'd never argue that the decrease in gun violence is the result of any significant upward evolutionary enlightenment, the book looks like a fascinating read. Loaded with graphs/evidence that diametrically opposes Controller "logic" and "debate".

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

10. Control is like money; there's never enough and more is always better

IMHO, legislators use some issues as an excuse so they can be 'hard at work' on something while they, in reality, ignore other important issues.

[russ1943]

2. Gun violence is more than just deaths.

Gun violence is more than just deaths. To only consider deaths in a discussion about gun violence is to ignore the majority of the gun violence. WISQARS provides information of value in grasping a perspective on the epidemic that is gun violence. For example if you were to seek to determine how many victims who were assaulted with firearms and injured seriously enough to be transferred to another facility (e.g., trauma center, rehabilitation unit); and hospitalized. You would be excluding those with minor injury who were treated and released from hospital emergency departments. Your data would also exclude suicides, accidents, legal intervention, and even the undetermined even though those ARE gun violence. What kind of numbers would you generate? The rates? Decreasing, Increasing or no change? The data is available from 2001 through 2013.
Firearm Gunshot Nonfatal Injuries and Rates http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/nonfatal.html .












Assault Firearm Gunshot Nonfatal Injuries and Rates per 100,000
2001 - 2013, United States All Races, Both Sexes, All Ages Disposition: Transferred/Hospitalized
YEAR VICTIMS RATE
2001 20,844 7.31
2013 37,311 11.80
Change number + 79% rate +61%
In this century from 2001 to 2013 (the most recent statistics available) nonfatal assaults with firearms have increased SEVENTY NINE percent!

A definition from my Microsoft Word research; ep·i·dem·ic, adjective, happening a lot and affecting many people. eg In some cities, drug use has reached epidemic proportions.

[hack89]

5. 37,000 injuries out of a population of 360 million is not an epidemic.

did you notice this disclaimer with the results?

Injury estimate is unstable because of small sample size. Use with caution.

Guns are not even in the top 20 causes of injury.

[Lurks Often]

7. When addressing murder, crime and violence it is important to focus on ALL of it.

Not just cherry pick one method and use it to push a political agenda like the gun controllers normally do.

Gun ownership rates don't appear to be the issue, like the crime rate it fluctuates up and down:
http://www.statisticbrain.com/gun-ownership-statistics-demographics/

Despite what some may say, the Federal laws governing who can purchase a firearm really haven't changed much since 1968. They've added some crimes to the prohibited person list such as stalking and background checks are now immediate instead of waiting two weeks, but who can buy a firearm hasn't gotten easier.

According to the link there were 30,888,063 non-fatal injuries in 2013
http://webappa.cdc.gov/cgi-bin/broker.exe

Using your number of 37,311 that is 0.1 percent of all injuries in 2013. That doesn't seem to qualify as an epidemic.

So the real question is what cultural or social pressures, as well as economic pressures drive the average person to commit a violent act?

[kcci]

9. Unless you think Robin Williams died of "rope violence", calling suicide committed with a firearm

"gun violence" is disingenuous.

Deaths by accident with a gun is very rare & has been declining for a century.
Death by accidental firearm discharge makes up less than 1% of accidental deaths.
Think about that for a moment, a person is literally one hundred times more likely to be accidentally killed by anything but a firearm.

[ileus]

6. NO NO NO...you silly gun humpers! Donjaknow "Guns kill peepoles!"

That's all that matters.

[pablo_marmol]

8. FAIL. Pandemic of propaganda more like it.

http://www.guncite.com/journals/tennmed.html

[jimmy the one]

11. don't end up a gunnut, stay in school

What does the following statistical gem tell us, boys & girls?

Gun Ownership Statistics & Demographics
Education
College Post Graduate 30%
College Graduate 37%
Some College 41%
High School Graduate or Less 42%

ME ME ME, Teacher! The more education you have, the less you want a gun! 25% less! (at the extremes).

OK, I got that one good, but I need some help with this one from lurkso. Explain what gun owners of America is doing in there. Then explain why the telephone survey of 2750 adults in 2004 gets singled out.

Source: Gallup Inc, Gun Owners of America Research Date: October 2nd, 2014
A national representative household telephone survey of over 2750 adults conducted in 2004 found that 38% of households (45% of men and 11% of women) reported owning at least one firearm. Almost half (48%) of gun owners report owning four or more guns with a few possessing large numbers of guns; 64% of gun owners own at least one handgun. Gun ownership remains widespread, but a smaller percentage of gun owners possess an increasing percentage of the gun stock.

And note that the GSS as well as Pew both corroborate & have HH gun ownership about 25% lower than gallup, over the years. Individual gun ownership too.

Finally, why did the 'gallup/GOA' poll result, misspell independent?

Republican 49 % Democrat 35 % Independant 35 %

[friendly_iconoclast]

12. "What does the following statistical gem tell us, boys & girls?" Among other things...

...gun owners are more likely to hold a bachelors or higher degree that the average American.
Aside from the genetic fallacy aimed at GOA, was there some point you were trying to make?


What level of education have *you* reached?
In the interests of disclosure, I would be 'some college'

Aside from the genetic fallacy aimed at GOA, was there some point you were trying to make?

(I love these word problems you post- "There's something wrong with my post, figure it
out and reply with your fisking&quot