31 people out of every million are killed by guns every year in the United States.
Photo via (cc) Flickr user seeviewer
In the United States, you have the same chance of dying by being shot as you do being killed in a car crash (motorcycles and trucks excluded). Its annual total of 31 gun deaths per million people is unbelievable when compared with the statistics for other first-world countries. To put things in perspective, in Germany about two people in every million are fatally shot every year, the equivalent of the United States’ annual death rate for hypothermia. In Poland and England, about one person in every million is fatally shot every year, which is about as often as an American dies from falling off a ladder or in an agricultural accident. In Japan, one in every 10 million people dies of a gunshot, the American equivalent of being struck by lightning.
So, let’s play some Mad Libs, shall we?
Being killed with a gun in [country] is about likely as dying of [mode of death] in the United States.
U.S. (31 deaths/million) – car crash
Israel (7.5 deaths/million) – building fire
Canada (5.6 deaths/million) – alcohol poisoning
China (1.6 deaths/million) – plane crash
Iceland (0.6 deaths/million) – electrocution
Norway (0.9 deaths/million) – accidental hanging and/or strangulation
(H/T The New York Times)
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