The Gun Violence Chart President Obama Asked For

[forest444]

When President Barack Obama took the podium on Thursday night to speak about the mass shooting at Oregon's Umpqua Community College, he blasted Congress for its inaction on gun safety legislation. "Our thoughts and prayers are not enough," he said, visibly angry.

He also had a request for the media: "Have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who have been killed through terrorist attacks over the last decade and the number of Americans who have been killed by gun violence, and post those side by side on your news reports."

Wish granted, Mr. President. We compared gun deaths with other highly publicized causes of death in the chart below. (Note that about two-thirds of American gun deaths are suicides). The numbers come from 2013 — the most recent year that data is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Breast cancer__________________________41,325
Guns________________________________33,636
Car crashes___________________________32,719
War in Afghanistan (U.S. deaths)_________127
Terrorism in the U.S.___________________7

At: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2015/10/oregon-shooting-obama-gun-violence-chart

[spanone]

1. K&R...

[daleanime]

2. K&R.....

[GGJohn]

3. Bear in mind that 2/3rd's of those gun deaths are suicides,

and while tragic, if someone is bound and determined to end it all, they'll find a way to do so.
In Japan, where it's almost impossible to own a firearm, they have a higher suicide rate than the US, they just find different ways to kill themselves.
Better funded mental health services would greatly reduce the rate of suicides and ending the WOD would also reduce the firearm deaths in this country.

[SheilaT]

10. Well, let's think about that.

About thirty people die each and every day from gun violence. If guns weren't so available here, a lot fewer would die.

I recently read a study about people who'd been kept from killing themselves, and a couple or so years later the vast majority were still alive, regardless of their original intent or access to a means to kill themselves. When a gun is handy, it is a quick solution to the temporary problem.

I haven't checked on the statistics, but I bet our suicide rate is also a lot higher than in other countries, since access to guns is so easy here.

Several years ago I had a temp job at a jewelry kiosk in a local mall. One day a man, who worked in the gun/hunting shop near us came by to chat. He already knew the owner of the kiosk (I'd only been hired a couple of weeks earlier) and proceeded to tell us the story of a woman who'd bought a gun from him and had used it to kill herself. He understood quite clearly that he was not to blame, and he related how he'd talked her out of buying a gun several times earlier. And yet, even though this didn't come up, the fact that the easy availability of a gun made her suicide relatively easy wasn't part of the conversation, even though it was clear to me that the man who'd sold the gun understood that it really was.

One anecdote, which doesn't prove anything, I know, but the statistics do back me up.

Get rid of the guns. Pure and simple.

[bemildred]

14. It would make it harder for these cowards to kill themselves when they are done too. nt

[EX500rider]

15. "but I bet our suicide rate is also a lot higher than in other countries"

Not really...these 50 countries all have a higher rate then the US:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

1 Guyana
2 South Korea
3 Sri Lanka
4 Lithuania
5 Suriname
6 Mozambique
7 Tanzania
7 Nepal
9 Kazakhstan
10 Burundi
11 India
12 South Sudan
13 Turkmenistan
14 Russia
14 Uganda
16 Hungary
17 Japan
18 Belarus
19 Zimbabwe
20 Bhutan
21 Sudan
22 Comoros
23 Ukraine
24 Poland
24 Equatorial Guinea
26 Eritrea
27 Latvia
27 Kenya
29 Malawi
30 Zambia
31 Montenegro
32 Djibouti
33 Finland
34 Belgium
35 Iceland
36 Angola
37 Moldova
38 Estonia
38 El Salvador
40 Myanmar
41 Trinidad and Tobago
42 Czech Republic
43 Slovenia
43 Serbia
43 Somalia
43 Papua New Guinea
47 France
48 Chile
48 Bolivia
50 Uruguay

[pipoman]

4. Pretty incomplete "chart"....

Maybe a few lines more, like 40,000 suicides...but some people really don't give a shit about suicide prevention, they only feign concern about 20k of the suicides annually.

[Thor_MN]

5. That somehow alters a gun death being... a gun death?

&quot Note that about two-thirds of American gun deaths are suicides.)"

[Recursion]

6. It's a reminder that suicide needs to be front and center of any attempt to reduce gun deaths

Because it's the vast majority of gun deaths.

[Thor_MN]

8. It's not either/or

And any effective solutions will address all gun deaths.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. The National Review says so, so...

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423192/gun-control-suicide-rates-ezra-klein

[forest444]

9. Their phrase, not mine.

I'm with you on that. A couple of people here made the point that, since countries like Japan -where gun ownership is highly restricted- have similar suicide rates, we should assume most of those 20,000 who committed suicide by gunfire would have been lost anyway (I should note that, on an age-adjusted basis, most other developed countries have lower suicide rates - and that Japan is a statistical outlier for largely cultural reasons).

That said, I think they miss the point.

If guns are being used in all those deaths - not to mention the 11,000 annual gun murders and the 3,000 or so deaths by gun accident - it's incumbent on society to do everything possible to at the very least limit access to this trigger.

We use the same criteria, after all, to limit access to hard drugs and to some extent to hard liquor; many of those who die by way of those may ultimately die anyway, but we try to limit this impact anyway and in so doing no doubt save thousands - not to mention the injuries we avoid.

[SheilaT]

11. Do't forget that Japan has a culture which does

not hold suicide as something wrong. I don't know if I can say they approve, but it's built in to their culture in a way that it is not in ours.

Even though lots of people do commit suicide.

My sister in law found an uncle of hers who hanged himself. Many years ago, and I only know this second hand, because she has never mentioned this to me. I cannot begin to imagine how terrible that must have been. This is totally aside from any gun discussion, just a point about suicide and those who are left behind.

[forest444]

13. That was precisely my point about Japan - but more importantly, I'm terribly sorry to hear that.

One of my father's uncles had a similar experience. His son-in-law had bought a plastics factory; but after several successful years, had to go deeply into debt on account on increasing competition from cheap imports. When adjustable interest rates skyrocketed in the early '80s, he found himself insolvent and hanged himself. My great uncle, who found him, had a large check in his pocket meant to bail him out.

The entire family was left shaken on account of it for several years afterward; it's definitely no small matter. My best wishes to your family.

[Kang Colby]

12. Nonsense.

Why do controllers insist on calling suicides "gun violence". The majority of firearm related deaths in this country are suicides. This implies that everyone who commits suicide is violent. This also implies that suicide is a form of domestic violence, if the deceased is married. What nonsense. Please folks, let's just use some logic. I understand that using suicides pads the numbers so controllers can make the problem seem much worse than it is, but this is flat out dishonesty.

Japan effectively outlaws civilian possession of guns, yet has a much higher suicide rates. Cut the crap.