Gun Death Statistics, Suicide Rates, and Gun Ownership
Detroit Free Press has a new op-ed piece: More people die from guns than car accidents in Michigan . Excerpt: “The idea that gun deaths exceed motor vehicle deaths in 10 states is stunning when one considers that 90% of American households own a car, while fewer than a third own firearms,” VPC Legislative Director Kristen Rand said. “It is time to end firearms’ status as the last unregulated consumer product.” Rand said her group’s state-by-state analysis compared gun and car deaths in 2009, the most recent year for which state-level data for both causes of death is available. Michigan reported 1,095 gun deaths that year — 10.98 per 100,000 residents — while recording only 977 deaths, or 9.8 per 100,000 residents, involving motor vehicles, including pedestrian accidents. I found this unsurprising, and a fairly typical advocacy piece from the gun-control side. Eugene Volokh at the Volokh Conspiracy reports on this and adds these statistics: But ...