Doctors vs. Guns

A friend emailed me a fun group of statistics the other day about doctor-related vs. gun-related deaths. After some quick Internet sleuthing, I discovered these statistics to be at best educated guesses so, I dug a little deeper. After several hours of exhaustive research, I was only able to find compatible doctor and gun statistics from the year 1995. I hope this puts to rest another urban legend. Here's what I found:

Doctors

• The number of practicing doctors in the U.S. totals 625,000. [1]

• The number of (we hope) accidental deaths caused by doctors annually totals 280,000. [2]
  

• Annual accidental deaths per physician total 0.448.

Guns

• The number of firearms available in the U.S. is 223 million. [3]
  

• The number of all gun-related deaths (accident or otherwise) annually totals 36,530. [4]

• Annual deaths per gun total 0.0001638.

So there you have it. One can honestly say that doctors are approximately 4,000 times more dangerous than guns.

How do you feel about nationalized healthcare now?

Spies Like Us - "Doctor" Scene

Statistical references:

[1] Blue Cross / Blue Shield. http://www.bcbs.com/blueresources/mcrg/chapter4/physicians/slide2.html.

[2] Crossen C. Tainted Truth: The Manipulation of Fact in America. New York, NY : Simon & Schuster. via article: Death by Medicine By Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD. http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2004/mar2004_awsi_death_01.htm.

[3] Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/guic.pdf.

[4] In 1995 the age-adjusted death rate for firearm injuries was 13.9 deaths per 100,000 U.S. standard population. Population = 262.8 million. National Center for Health Statistics 1995 Final Mortality Statistics Released. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/97facts/95morrel.htm.