The actual figure as stated is 38,658 firearms related fatalities - but this includes 23 thousand gun suicides. - Removing those voluntaries leaves 15,549 killed .. then subtract from this figure 2,015 "unintentional deaths" to arrive at "shootings" third person intentional violent deaths numbering 13,544 from a population of 328.5 million ..
Note: there are recorded some 45 Thousand US suicides by all means every year.
10% of that 13,544 annual number - around 1,000 - 1,350 are variously recorded as police shootings of criminals.
.https://www.newsweek.com/how-many-americans-do-cops-kill-each-year-480712
EVERY sudden death is a tragic loss of someone's beloved family member.
However as a comparison .. John Hopkins Medical Research lists Medical Misadventure as the third largest cause of fatality in US at more than 250,000 every year. This encompassing category includes various medical complications such as abnormal reactions to medications & infections etc .. Medical Misadventure does not equate to an 'iatrogenic' cause of mortality.
Note: There are 2.744 Million total deaths each year in USA - where average life expectancy is 78.6 years. The biggest cause of mortality is Heart Disease while Cancer is number two followed by 'medical misadventure'.
A further perspective would be to consider that in one year (2014) twice as many - 28,360 Indian citizens were killed there in railway accidents. (BAN INDIAN TRAINS?)
It would be surprising to hear of these other massive losses of life in the same kind of lurid reportage as is used to vilify private gun ownership.
But we are getting so used to being deliberately fed "fake news" - that the habit has evolved of just picking any quote that supports ones beliefs and bias's while shouting louder .. Eh 😎
Marty K.
Marty I recommend you get rid of the medical misadventure numbers. The way they are calculated does not tally with what you and I would consider medical misadventure. Let’s say you go into hospital with a heart problem. The outlook is grim but they do their best to save your life with a medical intervention. Not surprisingly, even with all best efforts, you pass away. That is counted as medical misadventure.
ReplyDeleteThe numbers for doctors making complete messes of their job and thereby causing the death of a patient are about 4,500 annually.
I don’t like gun statistics misreported and I certainly wouldn’t want to see the same twisting of numbers for medical statistics.
OK Young Mark - I'll look into that and amend/ supplement as necessary - can you demonstrate comments for Col next time you see him as he's complained that it's not working?
ReplyDelete