America's Gun Deaths

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The purpose of this section is to cover the argument that the USA has more than 30,000 gun deaths each year and that tight gun laws will help minimise these deaths.

I have taken my research from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), a public health organisation that focuses national attention on preventing all types of death, not just those from diseases.

Firearms death figures are for 2006 (the most recent year available) during which there were 30, 896 deaths from firearms. I was unable to determine the type of death in 130 cases.

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SUICIDES

Suicides made up 16,883 (or 54 percent) of all gun deaths. These deaths are unavoidable since someone determined to kill themselves will always find a way even without guns.

After all, would these people still be alive had they thrown themselves from a tall building, jumped in front of a fast moving train or overdosed on painkillers ?

 

HOMICIDES

Homicide (or murder as it's commonly known) made up 12,791 (or 41 percent) of all gun deaths in 2006. Of those almost half (6,374) were black males, as were almost half of the killers.

Banning guns will not prevent these murders since criminals can acquire guns with ease, as we have seen in our own country. Even if it were actually possible to stop criminals getting guns, these people would simply get knives, hammers, chisels or any other weapon that could inflict serious injury and use that instead.

Gun control does not prevent murder, it never has and it never will. The proof of this lies in the fact that murder has always taken place, even before guns were invented. The majority of incidents of murder in America are simply cases of criminals killing each other.

The US has always had more gun homicides than Britain, though increased gun sales and the relaxation of gun laws has reduced the murder rate since 1991. At the same time, tightening of gun laws in England has lead to an increase in our murder rate, both with and without guns.

 

ACCIDENTAL DEATHS

Accidental (or unintentional) deaths made up 567 (or just under 2 percent) of all gun deaths. Compare this with the 30,330 accidental deaths that occurred from motor vehicle accidents in the same year.

Of the 567 accidental gun deaths, just 113 of those were of children under 18.

3,273 children were killed in motor vehicle accidents, more than 28 times the number of kids killed in gun accidents and more than 1,090 kids were killed in drowning, falls and fire/burn related accidents.

We don't seek to ban cars, cookers and swimming pools to reduce these deaths. Instead we use education to minimise the risks from these items. This is what we should be doing with firearms - EDUCATION, NOT PROHIBITION.

 

LEGAL INTERVENTION

Legal intervention (sometimes referred to as justifiable homicide) makes up 344 (or 1.1 percent) of all gun deaths. This figure covers things such as armed police officers shooting criminals or armed citizens killing criminals in self-defence.

Would anybody really want to prevent the police and other people from protecting themselves ?

 

(Source -  Center For Disease Control - 2006 Injury Mortality Reports)

(Source -  US Department Of Justice -  Bureau of Justice Statistics ) (PDF File)