In January after the Newtown shootings, the President ordered the Centers for Disease Control to “research the causes and prevention of gun violence” because, you know, gun violence is a contagious disease. A pre-publication draft of the study is now available here, and it’s surprising. Let me clarify that. The findings aren’t surprising. But I’m surprised that the study seems to be pretty objective and impartial rather than the biased anti-gun screed I expected.
Jennifer Cruz has written a nice article summarizing its findings. Here are a few key ‘graphs (but RTWT):
According to the study, “Unintentional firearm-related deaths have steadily declined during the past century.” Accidental deaths resulting from firearms accounted for less than one percent of all unintentional fatalities in 2010.
…
… “Firearm-related suicides — though receiving far less public attention — significantly outnumber homicides for all age groups, with suicides accounting for approximately 60 percent of all firearm injury fatalities in the United States in 2009. In 2010, suicide was the 10th leading cause of death among individuals in the United States over the age of 10.”
It’s worth pointing out here that according to World Health Organization data, the US ranks 34th (out of 109 countries) in suicide rate. Many nations where gun ownership is banned and/or very rare have a higher suicide rate. So, no — guns don’t cause suicides or increase the suicide rate.
“Defensive uses of guns by crime victims is a common occurrence, although the exact number remains disputed. Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008.”
It was also discovered that when guns are used in self-defense the victims consistently have lower injury rates than those who are unarmed, even compared with those who used other forms of self-defense.
I’m guessing that the Prez, Bloomberg, Feinstein, et al, aren’t too happy with this study, and I suspect that you’ll see damned little reporting of its findings in the mainstream media. As of right now, a search of Google News for “cdc gun violence study” (sans quotes) suggests that my suspicion is correct.
