Also, don’t forget that if suicides are counted among “gun deaths”, to be fair one has to include suicides (and other deaths) by CO poisoning from automobile exhaust along with traffic fatalities in “auto deaths”.
If someone dies in the ambulance from a gunshot wound is it counted as a gun death or motor vehicle death? I know the answer but objectively it satisfies the criteria either way. I remember reading that several large cities improved their reputation by recording that if someone was beaten and robbed, it was listed as a robbery instead of assault thus lowering their violent crime stats.