Deaths from gun violence, police shootings, and terrorism: Comparing the numbers

[YoungDemCA]

From police shootings:

The number of people killed by law enforcement in the US this year has reached 1,000 after officers in Oakland, California, shot dead a man who allegedly pointed a replica gun at them.

snip:

An analysis of the statistics collected so far found the rate of deaths currently stands at 3.1 per day. This rate has remained relatively steady throughout the year, peaking through the month of March to a daily rate of almost four and dipping to an average of 2.6 through June.

The Counted was launched on 1 June, logging 464 deaths in the year to that point. At that time 102 or 22% of those killed had been unarmed. This proportion has since fallen slightly to 20% or 198 of the total 1,000. In 59 deaths, however, it remains unclear whether the suspect was armed.

As of 1 June, black Americans were more than twice as likely to be unarmed as white Americans when killed by police. At that point 32% of the 135 black people killed by police had been unarmed, compared with 15% of the 234 white people. This disparity has since shrunk, with 26% of the 248 black people and 18% of 490 white people being recorded as unarmed.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/16/the-counted-killed-by-police-1000

From gun violence and terrorism:

Using numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we found that from 2001 to 2013, 406,496 people died by firearms on U.S. soil. (2013 is the most recent year CDC data for deaths by firearms is available.) This data covered all manners of death, including homicide, accident and suicide.

According to the U.S. State Department, the number of U.S. citizens killed overseas as a result of incidents of terrorism from 2001 to 2013 was 350.

In addition, we compiled all terrorism incidents inside the U.S. and found that between 2001 and 2013, there were 3,030 people killed in domestic acts of terrorism.* This brings the total to 3,380.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/02/us/oregon-shooting-terrorism-gun-violence/

Note that if you exclude 9/11 (which really skews the results) you get a far smaller number of Americans killed by terrorism.

To sum up, Americans are far more likely to be victims of gun violence, police shootings, or domestic terrorism than they are to be victims of terrorism from foreign sources.

[Lizzie Poppet]

1. It may be instructive to note...

...that gun suicides significantly outnumber all the other categories listed (gun homicides, police killings, terrorism) put together.

[gratuitous]

2. Yeah, but we're really scared right now

So it's time to dial back that whole Constitution thing (don't get me wrong - the Constitution is fine for day-to-day stuff, but we have to shitcan it when we get real scared) and ramp up the xenophobia.