One common thing use pro-gun people like to state is far more people are killed each year in automobile accidents than firearms. The idea behind this is simple, since anti-gunners claim we need to control guns because they kill so many people then we must also strictly control automobiles. I’m doing some research into automobile fatalities (not in any way related to firearms) and decided since I have the data at hand I might as well do a comparison.
Behold the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration trend data (NHTSA) on fatal automobile accidents. Now behold the 2008 (chosen because 2008 is the latest data on the NHTSA website) Unified Crime Report expanded homicide information. Specifically I’m looking at the FBI data on weapons used in homicides.
Since the FBI data only goes from 2004 to 2008 that’s what we’ll stick with.
In 2004 9,385 people were murdered with firearms while 38,444 were killed in automobile accidents. 2005 showed a similar trend with 10,158 people being murdered with firearms and 39,252 people killed in automobile accidents. 2006 continues this trend with 10,225 people killed with a firearm and 38,648 killed in automobile accidents. Guess what happened in 2007? Same thing, 10,129 killed with firearms and 37,435 killed in automobile accidents. Finally we have 2008 where the trend continued as 9,484 people were murdered with firearms and 34,172 were killed in automobile accidents.
In the United States it seems the number of people killed in automobile accidents is a little under four times the number murdered by firearms. If anti-gunners are actually concerned about peoples’ safety they would be lobbying for stricter car control laws instead of gun control laws. Anyways that’s just an interesting observation I made.
To be fair, if we are looking at total deaths for cars, we should likewise look at total deaths for firearms… at which point the cars still edge out the firearms.
In the end, both are tools, and both have utilities beyond killing people. Whether or not anti-rights nuts are willing to admit those simple facts… well, that is their problem :).
Certainly. The post was written in a half rhetoric manner pointing out that exact idea (deliberately leaving a large gap in the data). Glad you brought it up.
A fool with one eye and half sense understands that criminals always have had and always will have their weapon of choice! The need in Not for “gun control”; it is for tougher penalties for anyone who presumptiously kills, injures or threatens another with a weapon! Identify and exterminate is the way to process murderers!
NONE of this “first offense” or “underage sympathy” crap! The weapon was FULL GROWN!