Useless Data

SayUncle links to this.

The data is disjointed and spread oddly.  It specifically excludes people who were dead before making it to the hospital and (almost by definition DUR) people who didn't bother going to the ER.

190,396 people went to the ER with an injury from a handgun from 2006 through 2014.

31.4% were an accident.  59,784.34 people, 6,642.70 per year.
54.9% were from an assault.  104,527.40 people, 11,614.16 per year.
9.9% were from a suicide.  18,849.20 people, 2,094.36 per year.
3.8% were "who knows how or why a handgun perforated them".  7,235.05 people, 803.89 per year.

41,500 people went to the ER with an injury from a shotgun in this time period.

??? people went to the ER with an injury from a hunting rifle in this time period.

??? people went to the ER with an injury from a military rifle in this time period.

457,492 people went to the ER with an injury from "other" guns in this time period.  I think.  I can't tell.

So I decided to read the linked Health Affairs study.

190,396 with a handgun wound.
41,500 with a shotgun wound.
14,256 with a hunting rifle wound.
457,492 with a gunshot wound, but no type of gun associated with the injury.

Notice a lack of "military rifle" here?  You have to back-track the number from "Of the patients injured by a military rifle, 56.9 percent (722 patients) were injured unintentionally."

1,269 with a military rifle.  Over nine years... 141 per year.  It is not clear if this 1,269 is part of the other categories or not, so I counted it as "in addition" in the total below.

Breaking that down:
56.9% were an accident.  722 people, 80.22 per year.
34.4% were from an assault.  436.54 people, 48.50 per year.
3.9% were from a suicide.  49.49 people, 5.50 per year.
4.8% were "who knows how or why a military rifle perforated them".  61 people, 6.77 per year.

This all seems so very scary... but...

48.0% of these ER visits end with the patient being discharged for home.
7.7% get discharged to get additional care.
37.2% get admitted.
5.2% die.

8.3% die if you add those who died after admission.

Of the 704,886 ER visits from a firearm injury, over nine years, just 58,505 died.  6,500 a year.

Always keep in mind: about 99,000 people die each year from a disease or infection they contracted which was unrelated to their visit to a hospital.

Yes, blood dancers, it takes years of gun violence to match secondary infection deaths for a year.