Some stats regarding gun safety
69charger
Posts: 1,045
I found this on Slashdot today...
I wrote a thing up for my book club a year or two ago when we started talking about gun control and how dangerous "just having guns around" is, so I looked into it. I know this is long, but maybe some of you will find the numbers different than your intuition tells you. (Disclaimer: I am pro-gun).
These numbers are all from the CDC.
http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html [cdc.gov]
My queries are for the years 1999-2002 (all they have), the entire U.S., all races, both sexes, all ages. (four year totals)
Unintentional death by falling : 57,760
Unintentional Pedestrian deaths: 24,079
Unintentional Drowning : 13,739
Unintentional death by burning : 13,642
Unintentional Firearms deaths : 3,164
Unintentional Bicyclist deaths : 3,099
You can also break it down by age range. If we're worried about the teen years, we can look at ages 12-18. (four year totals)
Unintentional Pedestrian deaths: 1,561
Unintentional Drowning : 1,495
Unintentional Firearms deaths : 494
Unintentional Bicyclist deaths : 453
Unintentional death by burning : 423
Unintentional death by falling : 306
Younger still, ages 1-11: (four year totals)
Unintentional Pedestrian deaths: 2,118
Unintentional Drowning : 2,870
Unintentional death by burning : 1,920
Unintentional Bicyclist deaths : 371
Unintentional death by falling : 292
Unintentional Firearms deaths : 164
Accident-wise, young kids have a lot more to worry about than guns. And teenagers are almost as likely to die on their bicycles. God forbid they're bicycling to the swimming pool... or even worse, *walking* to the swimming pool ... but yes, there are gun accidents.
Non-accidental deaths:
It's interesting to note that more than half of violent deaths attributed to firearms are suicide. Whenever you read an article in the media that mentions the number of gun deaths it's a good bet that they're including suicides.
Violent deaths by firearm: 113,160 (includes suicides)
Suicide by firearm: 67,162
Now I, personally, don't mind if people kill themselves. More power to them. I do agree that that there is a lower barrier to entry when using a gun and understand that depressed people might not be the best people to own guns, but gun control isn't really the solution to depression.
So, anyway, taking out suicides leaves us with:
"legal intervention": 1,192 (cops killing criminals?)
Homicide by firearm: 44,806 (11.2K per year)
As compared to
Non-firearm homicides: 26,794 (6.7K per year)
So, more people are definitely intentionally killed by guns than by any other single cause, roughly 11K people per year.
But...
How many times are guns used defensively? Since defensive gun use isn't something that is reported (like an offensive gun use is), numbers are harder to find. Here is the page I have bookmarked with the only numbers I've ever seen. (refers to Gary Kleck's survey and a DOJ-sponsored study, and has a table of the results of 13 other surveys). (Gary Kleck is a criminologist at FSU - and, no, he's not an NRA member. http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/p/faculty-gary-kleck.php [fsu.edu])
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcdguse.html [guncite.com]
Summary: Kleck thinks defensive gun use happens 2.5M times per year, other surveys listed range between 770K and 3.6M. The DOJ study thinks it's 1.5M times per year.
Let's aim low and go with 1M defensive uses per year. The question posed at the book club was "when does the ratio become worth it?".
1M defensive uses vs. 11K homicides per year. Ok, PLUS 750 fatal gun accidents per year. Even still, I would vote to allow the 1M people to defend themselves.
Granted, of the 1M defensive uses we don't know how actually saved a life (or someone from being raped). But we also don't know how many of the 11K people killed by guns would have been killed in some other way (remember, there were 6.7K non-firearm homicides per year, too. I imagine that number would end up going up a few points.)
[At this point, the book club asked about gun-related injuries]
Just following up on the injuries question. The definitive guide looks to be here:
http://secure.nsc.org/onlinecart/product.cfm?id=1064 [nsc.org], or
https://secure.nsc.org/instant/ChoosesubProduct.cfm?cid=3&subcatid=7[nsc.org]
but that would cost money... so, I'm only using other things I find via google.
(btw, I assume you mean unjustified deliberate injuries, though I'm not sure any statistics are broken down that way...)
According to this page (which is clearly anti-gun):
http://www.acep.org/webportal/PatientsConsumers/HealthSubjectsByTopic/InjuryPrevention/FeatureColumn%20DisarmingFactsaboutFir.htm[acep.org]
"Firearm injuries are a major cause of premature death and disability in the United States. In 1999, approximately 824 Americans died of unintended gunshot wounds, with the vast majority caused by handguns. On average, 13,688 individuals sustain unintentional nonfatal injuries each year, with almost 60 percent of those caused by handguns."
They don't say where they are getting their numbers from, but they reference the CDC in other sections and the 824 number matches.
And, according to this page:
http://www.usa.safekids.org/tier3_cd.cfm?folder_id=540&content_item_id=1131 [safekids.org] "Americans possess nearly 200 million firearms, including 65 million handguns. Approximately one-third of families with children (representing more than 22 million children in 11 million homes) keep at least one gun in the home." (Note: I'm pretty sure the 200M number is higher)
"An estimated 3.3 million children in the United States live in households with firearms that are always or sometimes kept loaded and unlocked."
"In 2001, 72 children ages 14 and under died from unintentional firearm-related injuries. Children ages 10 to 14 accounted for 54 percent of these deaths."
"In 2002, more than 800 children ages 14 and under were treated in hospital emergency rooms for unintentional firearm-related injuries; 35 percent of these injuries were severe enough to require hospitalization."
So, 11.2K deaths and 13.7K injuries from guns. The injuries include 800 from children under 14.
Contrast that to this page from the CDC:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/playgr.htm [cdc.gov]
"Each year in the United States, emergency departments treat more than 200,000 children ages 14 and younger for playground-related injuries (Tinsworth 2001)."
"About 45% of playground-related injuries are severe - fractures, internal injuries, concussions, dislocations, and amputations (Tinsworth 2001)."
"About 75% of nonfatal injuries related to playground equipment occur on public playgrounds (Tinsworth 2001). Most occur at schools and daycare centers (Phelan 2001)."
"Between 1990 and 2000, 147 children ages 14 and younger died from playground-related injuries. Of them, 82 (56%) died from strangulation and 31 (20%) died from falls to the playground surface. Most of these deaths (70%) occurred on home playgrounds (Tinsworth 2001)."
So, 200000 playground injuries vs. 800 with firearms.
Let me know when the next Mothers Against Playgrounds march happens.
And I promised school sports statistics, didn't I?
Here you go!
http://www.usa.safekids.org/tier3_cd.cfm?folder_id=183&content_item_id=18933 [safekids.org] "Every year, more than 3.5 million children ages 14 and under suffer sports injuries serious enough to require medical treatment. At least 480,000 kids each year go to emergency rooms with injuries from fall sports."
"In 2003, emergency rooms treated more than 200,000 children ages 5 to 14 who were injured playing basketball; nearly 186,000 injured playing football; more than 75,000 injured playing soccer; and nearly 22,000 injured doing gymnastics. These figures do not reflect injuries treated in sports medicine clinics and other non-hospital settings ~W by some estimates, half of all sports injuries."
I'll also note that 800 injuries and 72 deaths out of "22 million children in 11 million homes" is fairly miniscule. I don't mean to belittle the death or injury of any child - but you have to admit the ratio (.00004) is awfully small. (And I wonder how many of those incidents would have been prevented with a little education).
I wrote a thing up for my book club a year or two ago when we started talking about gun control and how dangerous "just having guns around" is, so I looked into it. I know this is long, but maybe some of you will find the numbers different than your intuition tells you. (Disclaimer: I am pro-gun).
These numbers are all from the CDC.
http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html [cdc.gov]
My queries are for the years 1999-2002 (all they have), the entire U.S., all races, both sexes, all ages. (four year totals)
Unintentional death by falling : 57,760
Unintentional Pedestrian deaths: 24,079
Unintentional Drowning : 13,739
Unintentional death by burning : 13,642
Unintentional Firearms deaths : 3,164
Unintentional Bicyclist deaths : 3,099
You can also break it down by age range. If we're worried about the teen years, we can look at ages 12-18. (four year totals)
Unintentional Pedestrian deaths: 1,561
Unintentional Drowning : 1,495
Unintentional Firearms deaths : 494
Unintentional Bicyclist deaths : 453
Unintentional death by burning : 423
Unintentional death by falling : 306
Younger still, ages 1-11: (four year totals)
Unintentional Pedestrian deaths: 2,118
Unintentional Drowning : 2,870
Unintentional death by burning : 1,920
Unintentional Bicyclist deaths : 371
Unintentional death by falling : 292
Unintentional Firearms deaths : 164
Accident-wise, young kids have a lot more to worry about than guns. And teenagers are almost as likely to die on their bicycles. God forbid they're bicycling to the swimming pool... or even worse, *walking* to the swimming pool ... but yes, there are gun accidents.
Non-accidental deaths:
It's interesting to note that more than half of violent deaths attributed to firearms are suicide. Whenever you read an article in the media that mentions the number of gun deaths it's a good bet that they're including suicides.
Violent deaths by firearm: 113,160 (includes suicides)
Suicide by firearm: 67,162
Now I, personally, don't mind if people kill themselves. More power to them. I do agree that that there is a lower barrier to entry when using a gun and understand that depressed people might not be the best people to own guns, but gun control isn't really the solution to depression.
So, anyway, taking out suicides leaves us with:
"legal intervention": 1,192 (cops killing criminals?)
Homicide by firearm: 44,806 (11.2K per year)
As compared to
Non-firearm homicides: 26,794 (6.7K per year)
So, more people are definitely intentionally killed by guns than by any other single cause, roughly 11K people per year.
But...
How many times are guns used defensively? Since defensive gun use isn't something that is reported (like an offensive gun use is), numbers are harder to find. Here is the page I have bookmarked with the only numbers I've ever seen. (refers to Gary Kleck's survey and a DOJ-sponsored study, and has a table of the results of 13 other surveys). (Gary Kleck is a criminologist at FSU - and, no, he's not an NRA member. http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/p/faculty-gary-kleck.php [fsu.edu])
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcdguse.html [guncite.com]
Summary: Kleck thinks defensive gun use happens 2.5M times per year, other surveys listed range between 770K and 3.6M. The DOJ study thinks it's 1.5M times per year.
Let's aim low and go with 1M defensive uses per year. The question posed at the book club was "when does the ratio become worth it?".
1M defensive uses vs. 11K homicides per year. Ok, PLUS 750 fatal gun accidents per year. Even still, I would vote to allow the 1M people to defend themselves.
Granted, of the 1M defensive uses we don't know how actually saved a life (or someone from being raped). But we also don't know how many of the 11K people killed by guns would have been killed in some other way (remember, there were 6.7K non-firearm homicides per year, too. I imagine that number would end up going up a few points.)
[At this point, the book club asked about gun-related injuries]
Just following up on the injuries question. The definitive guide looks to be here:
http://secure.nsc.org/onlinecart/product.cfm?id=1064 [nsc.org], or
https://secure.nsc.org/instant/ChoosesubProduct.cfm?cid=3&subcatid=7[nsc.org]
but that would cost money... so, I'm only using other things I find via google.
(btw, I assume you mean unjustified deliberate injuries, though I'm not sure any statistics are broken down that way...)
According to this page (which is clearly anti-gun):
http://www.acep.org/webportal/PatientsConsumers/HealthSubjectsByTopic/InjuryPrevention/FeatureColumn%20DisarmingFactsaboutFir.htm[acep.org]
"Firearm injuries are a major cause of premature death and disability in the United States. In 1999, approximately 824 Americans died of unintended gunshot wounds, with the vast majority caused by handguns. On average, 13,688 individuals sustain unintentional nonfatal injuries each year, with almost 60 percent of those caused by handguns."
They don't say where they are getting their numbers from, but they reference the CDC in other sections and the 824 number matches.
And, according to this page:
http://www.usa.safekids.org/tier3_cd.cfm?folder_id=540&content_item_id=1131 [safekids.org] "Americans possess nearly 200 million firearms, including 65 million handguns. Approximately one-third of families with children (representing more than 22 million children in 11 million homes) keep at least one gun in the home." (Note: I'm pretty sure the 200M number is higher)
"An estimated 3.3 million children in the United States live in households with firearms that are always or sometimes kept loaded and unlocked."
"In 2001, 72 children ages 14 and under died from unintentional firearm-related injuries. Children ages 10 to 14 accounted for 54 percent of these deaths."
"In 2002, more than 800 children ages 14 and under were treated in hospital emergency rooms for unintentional firearm-related injuries; 35 percent of these injuries were severe enough to require hospitalization."
So, 11.2K deaths and 13.7K injuries from guns. The injuries include 800 from children under 14.
Contrast that to this page from the CDC:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/factsheets/playgr.htm [cdc.gov]
"Each year in the United States, emergency departments treat more than 200,000 children ages 14 and younger for playground-related injuries (Tinsworth 2001)."
"About 45% of playground-related injuries are severe - fractures, internal injuries, concussions, dislocations, and amputations (Tinsworth 2001)."
"About 75% of nonfatal injuries related to playground equipment occur on public playgrounds (Tinsworth 2001). Most occur at schools and daycare centers (Phelan 2001)."
"Between 1990 and 2000, 147 children ages 14 and younger died from playground-related injuries. Of them, 82 (56%) died from strangulation and 31 (20%) died from falls to the playground surface. Most of these deaths (70%) occurred on home playgrounds (Tinsworth 2001)."
So, 200000 playground injuries vs. 800 with firearms.
Let me know when the next Mothers Against Playgrounds march happens.
And I promised school sports statistics, didn't I?
Here you go!
http://www.usa.safekids.org/tier3_cd.cfm?folder_id=183&content_item_id=18933 [safekids.org] "Every year, more than 3.5 million children ages 14 and under suffer sports injuries serious enough to require medical treatment. At least 480,000 kids each year go to emergency rooms with injuries from fall sports."
"In 2003, emergency rooms treated more than 200,000 children ages 5 to 14 who were injured playing basketball; nearly 186,000 injured playing football; more than 75,000 injured playing soccer; and nearly 22,000 injured doing gymnastics. These figures do not reflect injuries treated in sports medicine clinics and other non-hospital settings ~W by some estimates, half of all sports injuries."
I'll also note that 800 injuries and 72 deaths out of "22 million children in 11 million homes" is fairly miniscule. I don't mean to belittle the death or injury of any child - but you have to admit the ratio (.00004) is awfully small. (And I wonder how many of those incidents would have been prevented with a little education).
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