In 2013, the U.S. Center for Disease Control reported 11,208 deaths from firearms. The following year, as reported by the Gun Violence Archive, this number increased to 12,558. However, for 2015 the number of deaths from firearms is 9,510, with the total number of firearm incidents (including injuries) dropping from 51,728 to 37,820. A quick calculation reveals there were 13,908 fewer gun violence-related incidents this year than there was last year.
This came as a surprise to sophomore psychology major Jihee Cheng from Korea, who said, “What I know about American politics is they are very loud about what their opinions are. ... The news made it seem like gun violence is really a common everyday thing, especially in big cities.”
She continued, “I get that it still happens much much more than it should, but I wouldn’t have figured out that it was less than in years past.”
Gun violence statistics have been ample fuel added to the political fires burning underneath notable presidential candidates such as Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump, and Jeb Bush.
Junior business major Sydney Garza from Texas said she is unsure about the pros and cons of gun control. She stated, “Basically it’s super confusing to hear all the different opinions, but I keep listening and I’m trying to figure out what my stand is. Then there are all the news articles and Facebook debates and hashtags. A lot can get twisted if you don’t look at both sides of the argument.”
The discussion even found its way into the 2016 Miss America pageant, with controversial results. Alex Jones’ infowars.com takes note of a contestant’s answer to a gun-related question during the pageant. The question, “America loves our Second Amendment, but gun violence continues to be a tragic problem. Do you support a ban on military-style assault weapons?” was for Miss South Carolina, Daja Dial, who answered, “I don’t . . . If we teach people the proper way to use guns, then we will reduce the risk of having gun-related accidents. It starts with education.”
For Blake Maya, junior finance major from Colorado, this would have been a daunting question. As he said, “That would have put me on the spot. I can’t believe contestants are able to come up with good responses to hot issues like this when they’re in the hot seat.” In spite of Miss South Carolina being a favorite for the win, the crown ultimately went to Miss Georgia.
The article speculates the question was “crafted to make it seem that gun violence may be on the rise,” adding that a Pew Research Center statistics study in 2013 says, “Compared with 1993, the peak of U.S. gun homicides, the firearm homicide rate was 49 percent lower in 2010, and there were fewer deaths, even though the nation’s population grew.”
Meanwhile, Forbes’ Dan Diamond reports, “Gun-related deaths in America wildly outpace our peer nations,” and “More people now die by guns than by cars,” while simultaneously sporting a chart that displays fewer current gun deaths and even less projected from the years 2014-2020.