Putting Gun Death Statistics in Perspective

[priell3]

Putting Gun Death Statistics in Perspective

Gangs Remain Key Unaddressed Problem in Gun Debate

There are roughly 32,000 gun deaths per year in the United States. Of those, around 60% are suicides. About 3% are accidental deaths (less than 1,000). About 34% of deaths (just over 11,000 in both 2010 and 2011) make up the remainder of gun deaths. Sometimes the 32,000 and 11,000 figures are used interchangeably by gun control advocates. Clearly, the 32,000 figure is a far more dramatic number and is often used for impact. These numbers are also regularly compared to other countries' gun statistics. But are they true? Here, we will examine some of the most common gun control arguments used and put those figures into perspective.

http://jpfo.org/articles-assd03/gun-...erspective.htm

Worth reading.

[Democrat Gun Owner]

How are justifiable homocides calculated into these statistics?

[Metz]

I just want to add to the article, that after at least thousand police and citizens SD shootings the final number will be around 1000.

[BadAtScreennames]

Putting Gun Death Statistics in Perspective

Gangs Remain Key Unaddressed Problem in Gun Debate



http://jpfo.org/articles-assd03/gun-...erspective.htm

Worth reading.

The article claims that a CDC report says that 80% of gun violence deaths are gang-related. But looking through the cited CDC paper, there's no mention of gang violence at all, nor of the origins of any gun deaths, beyond homicide, suicide, and accidental discharge.

A different CDC study of five cities with heavy gang violence suggests different percentages:

In a three-year period in Los Angeles, there were 619 gang-related firearms homicides and 552 non-gang-related.

In Newark, New Jersey, there were 53 gang-related firearms deaths and 405 non-gang-related.

[WereWolf]

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrim...1#.UYq0WrWG2So

Does that link help? It doesnt have a link to the DoJ report though.

The article claims that a CDC report says that 80% of gun violence deaths are gang-related. But looking through the cited CDC paper, there's no mention of gang violence at all, nor of the origins of any gun deaths, beyond homicide, suicide, and accidental discharge.

A different CDC study of five cities with heavy gang violence suggests different percentages:

In a three-year period in Los Angeles, there were 619 gang-related firearms homicides and 552 non-gang-related.

In Newark, New Jersey, there were 53 gang-related firearms deaths and 405 non-gang-related.

[BadAtScreennames]

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/FedCrim...1#.UYq0WrWG2So

Does that link help? It doesnt have a link to the DoJ report though.

But 80% of all crimes doesn't mean 80% of all homicides.

The Justice Department's National Gang Center estimates that 12% of all U.S. homicides are gang-related.

"The total number of gang homicides reported by respondents in the NYGS sample averaged more than 1,900 annually from 2007 to 2011. During the same time period, the FBI estimated, on average, more than 15,500 homicides across the United States (http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr...tables/table-1). These estimates suggest that gang-related homicides typically accounted for around 12 percent of all homicides annually."

[tl_3237]

From FBI crime stats for 2012:

◾In 2012, an estimated 14,827 persons were murdered in the United States.

Justifiable homicide—Certain willful killings must be reported as justifiable or excusable. In the UCR Program, justifiable homicide is defined as and limited to:
◾The killing of a felon by a peace officer in the line of duty.
◾The killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private citizen.

Because these killings are determined through law enforcement investigation to be justifiable, they are tabulated separately from murder and non-negligent manslaughter.

Justifiable homicide by civilian (firearm) = 258 (Table 15)

Justifiable homicide by LEO (firearm) = 409 (Table14)

Of the 14,827 homicides the type of weapon used was given in 12,765 of them (Table 20) (Table 8):

Of that 12,765 there were:

Firearm = 8,855

Handgun = 6,371
Rifle = 322
Shotgun = 303
Firearm unspecified type = 1,859

[father-of-five]

That was a good article. I really like the part about the ignorance of gang problems. But then again, I fear that I am part of a minority of people who are genuinely interested in addressing solving problems like these!

It is a strong call for us to be aware of the false statistics and percentages that are being put out as emotionally charged scare tactics.

As uncomfortable as I am with the "Not one more" mentality, at least that mindset retreats from the discussion of facts and statistics and shows the emotional absurdity of the anti-gun position.

[BadAtScreennames]

It is a strong call for us to be aware of the false statistics and percentages that are being put out as emotionally charged scare tactics.

It is--because it uses false statistics. Or least stats that I haven't been able to verify despite poring over the original source document.