3 ms·
Well, maybe like 1% of deaths if you include suicides as "gun violence" (kinda weird, but is often stated), maybe 2% if you focus on only men. But yea, it's a
by dmoy 3y ago
Well, maybe like 1% of deaths if you include suicides as "gun violence" (kinda weird, but is often stated), maybe 2% if you focus on only men.
But yea, it's a literal nonfactor in aggregate life expectancy. Amdahl's law applies here too.
- nl 3y agoAccording to [1], "homicide, suicide and gun deaths" is the 2nd highest factor in explaining the difference. [1] https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1641799922583326720/photo/1 https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status/1641799922583326720/...
- dmoy 3y agoI can't read the underlying article, but that graph a minimum is not saying "2nd highest factor". It notes both drugs (lowers gap to 2.9) and metabolic diseases (lowers gap to 2.2) as both more of a factor than suicide & homicide (only lowers gap to 3.2). Which tracks, given that suicide is like 50k per year, homicide is 20k per year (unstated: "gun deaths" that aren't homicide or suicide are orders of magnitude lower), drug deaths are over 100k per year, and metabolic diseases dwarf all of the above. So, no, what you wrote is wrong.
- nl 3y agoOh I've read it the wrong way around! Yes you are correct!
- dmoy 3y agoAlso it's unclear if there are other factors worth tracking, since the graph only lists a few. Heart disease, cancer, stroke, respiratory disease (not including covid), accidents (which I suppose includes drug OD), Alzheimer's, and diabetes all have higher death rates that the combination of all suicide+homicide (which again, is sort of strange to join together). The first two alone are 600k+ each. A bunch of those affect primarily the elderly though, so won't hit the average life expectancy as hard. If you track homicide separately, it's not even in the top 20 of causes of death. Suicide is not in the top 10.