This discussion piqued my interest to see just how much of a danger firearms in America really are, how much is reality, and how much is hysteria. Here's what I found for the most recent (2010) finalized data from the CDC:
Number of deaths for leading causes of death•Heart disease: 597,689
•Cancer: 574,743
•Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 138,080
•Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 129,476
•Accidents (unintentional injuries): 120,859
•Alzheimer's disease: 83,494
•Diabetes: 69,071
•Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,476
•Influenza and Pneumonia: 50,097
•Intentional self-harm (suicide): 38,364
Since firearms deaths did not make the list (other than being a smaller subset of "Accidents" and "Suicide" above), I had to dig further to find:
- Intentional self-harm (suicide) by discharge of firearms: 19,392 (i.e., about half of all suicides)
- Accidental discharge of firearms: 606
As far as the statistics for being murdered by someone else with a gun:
- Assault (homicide) by discharge of firearms: 11,078Of those 11,078 homicides with a gun, it is safe to say that the very large majority of those were between people up to no good (i.e., gang and drug shootings). Still tragic, but not the headline-grabbing "innocent victim or bystander senselessly murdered on the streets" scenario. Likely only a couple of thousand or less fall into that category.
Even then, the total 11,078 deaths pales in comparison to the other causes of death higher on the list.
For comparison, there were 37,961 deaths due to motor vehicle and transport "accidents", 26,009 falling deaths, and 33,041 accidental poisoning deaths that same year.
Conclusion: If we were taking strictly a "numbers" approach instead of an "outrage" or media exposure approach, wouldn't we be better off focusing our efforts on unhealthy lifestyle choices that cause cancer, heart disease, diabetes, respiratory disease, etc.? The top four killers on the list (heart disease, cancer, respiratory, stroke) cause 130
times more deaths than firearms, and they can be overwhelmingly attributed to poor health habits (smoking, obesity, inactivity).
Or why isn't there similar talk of banning/regulating cars, ladders, and poisons under the kitchen sink that cause far more deaths than guns? I think it's simply the shock and outrage factor at work, much like a plane accident. Even though the number of motor vehicle deaths dwarfs plane crash deaths, a single plane crash gets headline attention. It's the same thing at work with gun deaths -- the occasional mass shooting causes such shock and outrage, but it pales in comparison numbers-wise to the steady drip, drip, drip of deaths from other causes. And if someone thinks, "But what about the children?!" then let's go after poisoning, falls, car crashes, and drowning.
Source:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm