[TN4Liberty]

"Between 1968, the year of Johnson's failure to get his legislation passed, and 2001, the last year for which complete statistics are available, more than one million Americans were killed by firearms."

That is 28,571 people per year. I don't believe that for a second.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Probably include all American soldiers killed in war.

And of course includes all cases where the American shot was committing a criminal act before he (or she) was permanently stopped.

[FourPeas]

Vietnam.

[Freeper 007]

While it's probally an accurate figure, it will include suicides. The liberals refuse to discuss gun control unless they can include suicide figures since it almost doubles the number of "gun deaths" annually.

[from occupied ga]

That is 28,571 people per year. I don't believe that for a second.

That is probably a slight exaggeration, but not by much. However, this figure includes 18,000 - 25,000 suicides annually. If you look at places like Japan, where guns are just not available to the general populace, you'll find the per capita suicide figures are about the same or higher than in the US.

[ccmay]

That is 28,571 people per year. I don't believe that for a second.

Homicides, no. Counting suicides, he may be right.

-ccm

[donmeaker]

that 28 thousand includes people killed by criminals, people killed by "illegal guns" mostly owed by criminals killed by police, Gary Gilmore, executed by firing squad.

The correct number to justify his position would be the number of unjustified or accidental shootings by legal gun owners. I would go so far as to subtract bad shootings by police officers, since he does not advocate disarming of the police.

Does anyone know that latter number? I would like to figure out the order of magnitude of his lie. I understand the accidental shootings number is near 50 a year, slightly less dangerous than accidental drowndings in 5 gallon buckets.

[lepton]

Not even if you include wars.

Maybe if you go back through WWII?

[CAfraudPI]

He probably took the liberty of lumping the 'Nam statistics into that figure.

[neverdem]

"That is 28,571 people per year. I don't believe that for a second."

I believe it's pobably true, but he doesn't say that it includes all homicides, including justifiable homicides committed by civilans and the police(4 - 5 to 1 ratio in favor of civilians,BTW), suicides and accidental shootings.
I think the suicide by guns percentage is quite large, maybe greater than 40%.

[TN4Liberty]

Some interesting data:

Source...National Vital Statistics Report,Vol.50,No.15,September 16,2002 69

For the year 2000,

Total firearms deaths = 28663
Accidental firearms deaths = 776
Suicide = 16,586
(Suicide whites - 14,454, blacks - 1,090)
Deaths due to assault w/ firearm = 10,801
(Assault deaths whites - 4,806, blacks - 5,699)
Legal intervention (I assume these are "good shoots") = 270
Undetermined intent = 230

Thanks to those who replied to my skepticism. The 28,000 number is valid depending on how it was interpreted, but the suicide numbers (about 60 percent of the total deaths) is the remarkable part. Also the difference in races comparing suicides and homicides is striking.