<p>The death rate by vehicle is now at the lowest point it’s ever been I believe due to the safety features built into the new cars. That’d make the ratio when compared to deaths with guns (or stabbings, or suicides, or drug overdoses, or falling, or getting struck by lightning, etc.) reflect that decline.</p>
<p>
Some of the deaths by people shooting guns were accidental but probably very few and most of those could have been prevented by taking simple care. Some of the deaths were self-inflicted suicides.</p>
<p>Rather than the safety features built into cars^^^, I think the raising of the drinking age and tieing it to Federal Highway funds may have had a bigger impact.</p>
<p>The number of suicides is bigger than one might guess. Easy access leads to what may only have been a fleeting thought.</p>
<p>I knew Michigan was going to be on this list.</p>
<p>You know, it’s really sad, I think I hear about multiple fatal car accidents in a day a lot of days, it’s sad to think there are even more gun deaths… I would have figured that anyway but I never really thought about it and those aren’t as publicized.</p>
<p>"80. The United States has incredibly high rates of firearm death: Using recent data from the World Health Organization (WHO), this paper provides striking evidence on the size of the U.S. problems of gun homicide, overall homicide, gun suicide, and unintentional gun death compared to other advanced countriesfor both genders and every age group.*</p>
<ol>
<li>Youth who die in gun accidents are shot by other youth.*</li>
</ol>
<p>Vital statistics data on accidental gun deaths are inaccurate."</p>
<h1>8 When thinking about the drone attacks recently in Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan and total people affected in the ME, I wondered about gun significance in the US.</h1>
<p>Thanks for giving it some perspective.</p>
<h1>9 The articles are summarized and if truly interested I would imagine they are for sale somewhere.</h1>
<p>NH is the lowest in 2010 with 1 per 100,000, comparable to the Western European and Scandinavian countries yet has moderately high gun ownership at 30% of the population.</p>
<p>yeah, and murder homicide rates in the U.S. are between two and six times that of every country in Europe (with the exception of the Balkan ones).</p>
<p>And these all are the source for the Guardian article - and the FBI one says the UCR one is unreliable - but that is where its sources are from.</p>
<p>States comparable to countries in Europe are Hawaii (1.8), Idaho (1.3), Maine (1.8), Minnesota (1.8), New Hampshire (1.0), North Dakota (1.5), Vermont (1.1), Wyoming (1.4). Outside of Hawaii, it appears that the other states with low murder rates have a border with Canada in common.</p>
<p>You have to start somewhere. Your stats appear to be gun crime statistics. I was using murder rates. Supposedly I live in a state with a low murder rate. That’s what it feels like locally. I have an apartment in MA in a city with a lot of poverty and crime. The feeling of safety between one and the other are like polar opposites.</p>
<p>It appears that North Dakota fares well in your map and mine. Why is that? I’d rather compare murder rates or violent crimes in general to those specifically involving guns to gauge the relative safety of an area.</p>
<p>I’m guessing North Dakota had a small pop. until the recent gas rush.</p>
<p>Median household income of Maine is about 20K less than NH.</p>
<p>If you just compare murder rates and violent crimes you are eliminating suicides and accidental shootings, and suicides alone are more than half of deaths from guns. Right?</p>
<p>It is clear that state-by-state differences in homicide rate in the US are highly related to the proportion of African-Americans in the population.</p>