VPC Leaves out Facts in Gun vs Car Deaths

Josh Sugarman of the Violence Policy Center (VPC) has been touting a new study about gun deaths around the internet, including on the Huffington Post.  The synopsis is that, despite our frequent interactions with cars and our rare interactions with firearms, there are now 10 states which have higher gun death rates than auto death rates.

What Sugarman conveniently leaves out is that this is an anomaly caused by two very good things - both auto death rates and firearm death rates are down overall.  He is correct that in some states, the auto death rate has fallen below the firearms death rate.  Naturally, he calls for more regulation.

My home state, Washington, is among those those 10 states.  While he does note this in a bullet list, he fails to go into any details on these rates.

The WA Department of Health has a PDF detailing firearms death in Washington.  It clearly shows a line graph indicating that, despite the increase in firearms ownership and public carry, the death rate by firearms has been declining for two decades.  FBI data shows that overall, violent crime and gun death has been on a steady decline for two decades.  The murder rate in America peaked in 1991, a time that was much less gun-friendly than today.  Since then, the US population has risen by approx 56 million people, yet homicides have decreased by 10,000 (or 41%).
If you dig deeper into these statistics, you will see that the demographic in WA that has the highest gun deaths is actually men 75 years of age and over.  This is attributed to people who are choosing suicide as their end of life option.  It has been documented over and over (including on this blog) that access to firearms does not increase the suicide rate - it only changes the preferred method (The U.S. is way down there at #41 for suicide rates.)  Guns, while messy, are seen by many as the quickest, most painless, guaranteed method of suicide.  Also interesting will be observing if this rate changes as Washington State's assisted suicide law becomes more prevalent and accepted socially.  So he is including statistics - and justifiable homicide.  Also, I'm not sure how it factors in, but Washington is well below the national average on auto deaths AND gun deaths.  This all sounds like good news to me.

In addition, due to economic downturn, the US saw miles driven fall by 3.6% in 2008.

So, back to the good news - gun deaths are down.  Automobile deaths are down.  Only the Violence Policy Center could spin this as an anti-gun story.

update: Since the article was posted the NRA has responded.