Gabby Giffords’ gun control group, Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS), ought to rename themselves “Anti-Gunners for Irresponsible Statistics” in light of their “bogus claim … about the number of firearm and car accident deaths among young people each year.”
According to the NRA-ILA, ARS “claimed that there are more than 30,000 firearm-related deaths, plus more than 30,000 car accident deaths among young people each year.” However, the NRA-ILA points to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) numbers, which show the number of accidental deaths among young people aged 0 to 19 years was 3,753 in 2013, while accidental firearm-related deaths for that same year were 124.
They use 2013 because that is the most recent year for which data is reported.
Even if all deaths are included–rather than accidental deaths only–the CDC shows all car deaths among young people 0 to 19 in 2013 was 3,776, while the number for all firearm-related deaths for young people age 0 to 19 was 2,465.
In other words, no matter how you look at it, ARS’s claims do not add up.
It should be noted that the claim that caught the NRA-ILA’s attention was ARS’s projection that “2015 will be the first year young Americans are more likely to die to from gun violence than car accidents.” Note that the ARS had to include all gun deaths–intentional and accidental–rather than only accidental car deaths to get the numbers close enough to keep the projection from being immediately discarded.
In fact, the NRA-ILA described it best as a “bogus claim.”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/03/nra-ila-gabby-giffords-gun-control-group-just-making-stuff-up/
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