Guns More Than Cars?

[Chik a Boom]

Our little local paper, that is published twice weekly in our small town-just ran an article about how more people died from guns than motor accidents in Arizona in 2011, along with 13 other states mentioned.

I question whether this is true as I have always heard/thought the contrary. This was quoted from the VPC - The Violence Policy Center website who got their numbers from the CDC. And it does look very anti, so I'm a little skeptical regarding some of their numbers, but this is all new to me so I was hoping some of you in the know could shed some light for me? Thanks.

 

[G-Mac]

I'm calling BS...just because.

 

[Road Rat]

They lie!!!!

 

[shouldazagged]

I want to see verifiable figures, starting with the FBI statistics but not stopping there.

"Give me persuasive evidence or shut the hell up" is a motto that has stood me in good stead for a long time.

 

[nawilson]

Figures don't lie, but liars sure figure! The antis will always try to lump all deaths caused by a gun together... including suicide and accidents. I suppose in their little worlds, if there were no guns, no one would find another way to kill themselves. They also love to include 19 year old gangbangers being killed in a lawful shooting by police as "child gun deaths."

According to Wikipedia, there were 232 gun murders in AZ in 2010. According to the US Census Bureau, there were 807 traffic fatalities in 2009 in AZ. Yes, the years are different, but I have a hard time believing the numbers changed that much. That research took about 5 minutes. During that time, I found several "news" media parroting the VPC line. I'm really not surprised.

 

[Mydogmax]

Can't speak for just AZ, but a quick search on the net shows USA auto deaths about 33,000 in 2013 and gun deaths at 11,000. Seems to me that I read an article a few months back pretty much saying about the same thing. Auto deaths run about three times higher. Another quick search says about 62 million cars in the US and about 200 to 300 million guns.
I plan to contact my local politician and ask for stricter automobile control.
BTW. Make that 300 million and one. Just ordered another 1911. Should be here in a couple of days.

 

[Jessie]

I checked for 2011 and murders by gun were 222, car deaths were 825. Doesn't sound like more by guns to me.
Now, it said gun "murders" but, if it wasn't murder, it sounds like they needed to be shot.

 

[chief38]

By the way one thing they fail to mention ......... The majority of gun deaths are either by justifiable Law Enforcement shootings and gun owners who had to protect themselves. If you take those type of shootings out of the equation, the accidental deaths related to guns is very very low. The criminals who kill with guns don't read, care about or obey any gun laws.

 

[RobertJ.]

Joseph Goebbels would have approved of that report!

I read the same thing here in Oregon.

 

[Rastoff]

Just ordered another 1911. Should be here in a couple of days.

I knew there would be some sanity in this thread. There is yet hope for this world.

 

[falcon1]

...if there were no guns, no one would find another way to kill themselves.

It's true, no one ever used swords, knives, spears, rocks, ropes, poison, fire, clubs, etc. to kill before the invention of firearms.

 

[kozmic]

Yeah, those gun death numbers seem a bit fishy to me.

Perhaps the VPC is including accounts of kids pointing a finger at someone and saying "bang, bang...you're dead" in their totals.