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« Rahm Emanuel gets the boot | Main | Bloomberg on the State of the Union »

Accidental gun deaths vs. accidental medical deaths

Posted by David Hardy · 24 January 2011 06:15 PM

PoliFacts Florida checks out the NRA statement that more people die from medical accidents than do from firearm accidents and rates it mostly true. Their conclusion is that the statement made is entirely true, although the data is imperfect, and the comparison only includes accidents.

3 Comments | Leave a comment

fwb | January 25, 2011 9:04 AM | Reply

I had these stats on my website back in 1994/5.

These STATS are based upon data from the FBI, the DOJ, and other government and antigun groups. Health stats are reported by various federal agencies. These data can be found in the World Almanac.

One is 18 times more likely to die at the hands of a negligent doctor than to be killed with a handgun.

One is 2.43 times more likely to die of AIDS than to be killed with a handgun.

One is 1.25 times more likely to die of a fall than to be killed with a handgun.

One is 7.9 times more likely to die of pneumonia than to be killed with a handgun.

One is 72.8 times more likely to die of heart disease than to be killed with a handgun.

One is 1.28 times more likely to drown, burn, or die ingesting food than to be killed by a handgun.

Ken | January 26, 2011 1:38 AM | Reply

Note that the data imperfections all tend to increase the validity of the assertion. Using the broader measure of deaths attributable in whole or in part to "medical misadventures" makes the statement true whether one is talking only about accidental deaths or all deaths. Using data other than the more restrictive CDC data on (e.g., a Harvard Medial School study of deaths due to physician errors) increases the number roughly by a factor of ten. Finally, common sense and a little thought suggest that the reporting errors in gun deaths tend to increase rather than decrease the number categorized as accident rather than decrease them.

Yes, it's "mostly true" except for the part that's seriously understated.

Law Prof | January 26, 2011 6:29 AM | Reply

Good research compares Apples to Apples. This study does that.

The usual anti-gun study mixes in accidents, suicides, justifiable homicides, etc in order to get the numbers to support the desired conclusion.

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