[i](Edited for clarity of firearm data)[/i]
Okay, BOOKMARK THIS:
Though the years are not identical (1997 vs 1999), the trends are still important...
Hospital Admissions/Year = approx. 33,600,000 (1997)
Total Number of Hospital Deaths/yr [u]Due to Medical Error[/u]:
* 44,000-98,000 deaths due to errors. (0.13%-0.29% fatal error rate) Inst. of Medicine study
* 5,000-15,000 deaths due to errors (0.014%-0.045% fatal error rate) JAMA study
Total Number of Guns in US = approx 200,000,000
Total Number of Gun Owners = approx 65,000,000
Firearm-Related Deaths (1999)
* 28,874 TOTAL firearm deaths. (0.044% of # gun owners)
* 8,259 Firearm murders. (0.013% of # gun owners)
* 20,615 Accident/suicide firearm deaths. (0.032% of # gun owners)
[b][u]KEY POINTS[/u]:
* The number of gun owners is [u]double[/u] that of number of patients admitted to hospitals each year.
* The number of accidental gun deaths per year barely exceeds the [u]LOWEST estimates[/u] of the number of deaths due to hospital errors.
* The gun death rate (including by accident AND murder) is 44 per 1,000 gun owners.
* The "accidental/suicidal" gun death rate is 32 per 1,000 gun owners
* The medical error death rate is 14 to [red]290[/red] [shock] per 1,000 hospital admissions.
[/b]
[b]Clearly, owning a gun is safer than being admitted to a hospital.[/b] [^]
Data Sources:
[url=http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/releases/01facts/99mortality.htm][b]CDC Mortality Data 1999[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/99cius.htm]FBI Uniform Crime Statistics 1999[/b][/url]Table 2.13 Circumstances by weapon.
[url=http://www.mynra.com/][b]MyNRA[/b][/url]
[url=http://www.ama-assn.org/sci-pubs/amnews/pick_01/prsb0820.htm][b]AMA News[/b][/url]
[url=http://books.nap.edu/books/0309068371/html/1.html#pagetop][b]Institute of Medicine Report[/b][/url]