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Thursday, April 9th, 2015

17 States Where You’re More Likely To Die From Guns Than Car Crashes

Author:     Steven Rosenfeld
Source:     Alternet (U.S.)
Publication Date:     April 7, 2015
 Link: 17 States Where You’re More Likely To Die From Guns Than Car Crashes
Stephan:   Think about this: In a third of the United States your life is more likely to end in gun fire than a car accident. We have more deaths per year in the U.S. by gun fire than many war zones. I find that an extraordinary bit of data.  In the 10 years of the Iraq War about 5,300 Americans were killed in combat. During that same time 270,000 men, women, and children died by gun fire in American towns and cities.

screen_shot_2015-04-07_at_1.13.39_pmIn one-third of America, you are more likely to be killed by a gun than in a car crash, a new Violence Policy Center (VPC) analysis has found. (emphasis added)

“Firearm-related fatalities exceeded motor vehicle fatalities in 17 states and the District of Columbia in 2013,” VPC’s report said, citing the most recent federal data. “That year, gun deaths (including gun suicide, homicide, and fatal unintentional shootings) outpaced motor vehicle deaths in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, District of Columbia, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.”

In those 17 states, there were 12,730 gun deaths, compared to 11,256 car-related fatalities. The states with the most gun deaths were Alaska, Louisiana, Wyoming, Tennessee and Missouri, where the death rate was 50 percent higher—or more—than the national average of 10.64 gun deaths per 100,000 people.  (emphasis added)

The reason why guns are killing more people than cars in these states is due to two simultaneous trends. The first is gun nuts have undermined sensible government efforts to require life-saving controls, the study said, such as features that […]

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