Guns Accounted for Less Than One Percent of All Deaths In 2011

So, for everyone who feels that guns are “a scourge on society,”  they should probably take note that firearms accounted for less than one half of one percent of all deaths in 2011.  I’m not trying to trivialize anyone’s suffering since death, in any instance, is tragic.  However, we have a political class that is dead set in abolishing the Second Amendment.  We’ve all heard the figures.  Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine features a segment where he reads the butcher’s bill for gun crimes in Europe and Asia, which he then compares to the awful United States.  Yes, it’s high.  However, it’s hardly enough to push for radical new gun laws.  AWR Hawkins at Breitbart wrote yesterday that:

…in 2011, the total number of gun-related deaths was 8,583.

Taken by itself, out of context, that number seems overwhelming. But taken in the context of overall deaths in America from–including natural causes–that number represents only .34 percent of all deaths for that year.

In other words, the percentage of deaths that were gun-related in 2011 does not even equal half of one percent of the 2,513,171 overall deaths for that year.

And if you really want to see how exaggerated the current anti-“assault rifle” rhetoric is, just look at 2011 numbers for the percentage of rifle-related deaths.

That figure is .012 percent of the overall deaths in America in 2011.

Meanwhile, the percentage of overall deaths that were the result of falling off things like rocks and ladders was 1 percent, or nearly three times the percentage of deaths that were gun-related: 26,631 versus 8,583.

Hawkins mockingly calls for ladder control at the end of his post.  Nevertheless, this is policymaking.  Are we willing to let representatives in Congress chip away at our rights because less than one half of one percent of all crimes involved a gun?