Are deaths from firearm suicides increasing?
Homicides often attract more attention in the popular press than other gun related deaths. But homicides alone cannot explain for rising numbers of gun deaths in recent years. Other causes, such as suicides, have historically accounted for a substantial proportion of gun deaths despite the lack of press paid to suicide.
Below, you can draw your guess for the number of deaths of different causes associated with firearms every year from 1999 to 2017/2018. If you think the number of deaths has stayed the same, draw a flat line. If you think the number has increased, then draw a line curving upwards. If you think the number has decreased over time, then draw a line curving downwards. When you're done, we'll show you what the data actually looks like based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since 1999, the overall number of Americans who have died from firearms has ...
Since 1999, the numbers of Americans who died from gun-related homicides were ...
The number of people killed in mass shootings each year...
Mass shootings, while devastating, are a very small portion of the overall number of firearms deaths. Though recent years have seen unprecedented numbers of people killed in mass shootings, these events are still rare, contributing at most 0.004% of total gun related deaths and up to 1% of total firearm homicides in recent years.
Since 1999, the numbers of firearm suicides has ...
Below, you can draw your guess for the number deaths caused by firearm suicide every year from 1999 to 2017. To start you off, here is one statistic: the number of suicides by firearms in 2002 was around 17,000, indicated by a point on the chart. Your line should pass through that point.
The U.S. gun death rate in 2017 hit a 20-year high with nearly 12 people per 100,000 die from firearms. Among the 39,773 people who died from firearms, according to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost two-thirds of the gun-related deaths are suicides. Among all types of suicide, firearm accounts for almost half of the incidents in the U.S.
About the Story:The data used in this story is compiled from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Mother Jones Gun Research and Gun Violence Archive. A mass shooting is defined as an event in which four or more people, excluding the shooter, are shot around the same time and location but not necessarily killed.