Tödlich wilder Westen© the_jetboy/flickr/cc

von Infosperber, 20. Jun 2016 – Seit 2001 wurden in den USA mehr Menschen mit Feuerwaffen willentlich erschossen als in den beiden Kriegen. Vergleich mit Grafiken.

Seit Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts starben mehr US-Amerikaner und -Amerikanerinnen im eigenen Land durch Mord mit Feuerwaffen als in den beiden grossen Kriegen in Vietnam und Korea zusammen getötet wurden. Dazu kamen noch viel mehr Selbsttötungen mit Schusswaffen:

• 258’386 Menschen nahmen sich selber das Leben;
• 164’089 Menschen wurden ermordet.

Im Vietnam- und Koreakrieg kamen zusammen 94’794 US-Amerikaner ums Leben. Martin Grandjean von der Universität Lausanne hat die eindrücklichen Grössenordnungen grafisch dargestellt.

Tote durch Schusswaffen von 2001-2014. (Quelle CC-BY-SA martingrandjean.ch

Und hier die Zahl der US-Amerikaner, die von 1775-2014 in Kriegen umgekommen sind (Quelle CC-BY-SA martingrandjean.ch):

Facts

Since 2001, more Americans died accidentally from guns in the U.S. than on Afghan and Iraqi battlefields. (8,969 unintentional firearm-related deaths vs. 6,855 deaths at war)

Since the beginning of Afghanistan War, the absolute number of Americans dying from guns (homicides only) is 69.4 times higher in the U.S. than in Afghanistan. (164,089 homicides with a firearm in the U.S. vs. 2,363 deaths at war)

Ten years of firearm homicides in the U.S. is equivalent to all american deaths during WWI.

Including suicide, more Americans have died from guns since the beginning of the 21st century than on WWII battlefields.

Including suicide, «more Americans have died from guns in the U. S. since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in American history» (see below).

Sources

This visualization is an update of the post «More Americans killed by guns since 1968 than in all U.S. wars» (2015). This post is still valid, but I wanted to produce a more precise overview.

In an article (08.2015), Louis Jacobson (@loujacobson) fact-checked the information published by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof). Reacting to the murder of two journalists in Virginia, Kristof cited the calculation set by Mark Shields three years ago on PBS: «since Robert Kennedy died in the Ambassador Hotel on June 4, 1968, more Americans have died from gunfire than died in all the wars of this country’s history». On politifact.com, Jacobson updated the figures and validated the assertion of Kristof. Based on a study of the Congressional Research Service and reports relating to most recent conflicts, he shows that 1’396’733 Americans were killed on the battlefields. Governmental reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that there have been 1’516’863 gun-related deaths since 1968 (included suicides).