Deaths by Firearms

Over just the past 50 years, more Americans were killed by civilians with firearms than were killed in all the wars in the entire history of the US - from 1776 through 2012 source .

In 2009, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 66.9% of all homicides in the United States were perpetrated using a firearm. source

The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides, source, with 17,352 (55.6%) of the total 31,224 firearm-related deaths in 2007 due to suicide, while 12,632 (40.5%) were non-suicide deaths. source.

U.S. homicides by weapons, per year, 1976-2004.    Data source: Bureau of Justice Statistics

Look at the charts below for some statistics regarding deaths by firearms across different countries.  It is clearly not just a case of  more firearms leads to more deaths by firearms - as might be concluded from the first plot.

Data on worldwide gun ownership and gun deaths from Wikipedia plotted by Mark Reid

Data on worldwide gun ownership and gun deaths from Wikipedia plotted by Mark Reid

Data on worldwide gun ownership and gun deaths from Wikipedia plotted by Mark Reid

Data on worldwide gun ownership and gun deaths from Wikipedia plotted by Mark Reid

To give some perspective to the above - a final note, and one more chart.

In America in 2007, there were 31244 firearm related deaths source. That same year there were 41045 motor vehicle related deaths source. From year to year, the motor vehicle related deaths have been on a steady decline (see the chart below). Homicides by firearms have not (see the chart at the top of this post).

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year