Yesterday afternoon, I spent some time chatting with a friend and correspondent of mine about homicide and the natural human tendency to woefully miscalculate risk. I said something to the effect that we spend too much time and effort focusing closely on mass shootings, which constitute a fairly small portion of an overall social problem, that is, the intentional and avertable loss of innocent human life. I may have also said that we should try to visualize the full scope of the issue, so as to put the subset of mass shootings in perspective relative to the larger problem of homicide in general and gun homicide in particular.
The following graph is a rough attempt to do just that, for the most recent calendar year during which data were readily available in all three categories:
Your thoughts?
Sources
1) 13,716 homicides in the U.S. in 2013 (link)
2) 11,208 gun deaths by homicide in 2013 (link)
3) 44 gun deaths from mass shootings in 2013 (link, pg. 10)
