The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is out with its most recent figures on drug, car, and gun deaths, and the numbers show that drug-related deaths far exceed car deaths, while car deaths exceed gun-related fatalities.
Breitbart News had previously reported that Duke University researcher Chris Conover compiled sources to show that owning a car is “80 percent” riskier than owning a gun, but the staggering number of drug-related deaths vs gun-related deaths was not highlight until the DEA figures were released.
According to the DEA, in 2013–the most recent year for which such data exist–there were 33,636 gun-related deaths, intentional and accidental combined. But there were 35,369 car-related deaths and a whooping 46,471 drug-related deaths.
Conover has already demonstrated that car deaths, even if they were the exact same figure as gun deaths, would still far exceed gun deaths in a percentage because there were nearly 100 million fewer cars than guns in 2013. So even with 100 million fewer cars the proposition of owning a car is far riskier than owning a gun.
As for drug-related deaths, the DEA shows a steady annual increase from 2004 to 2013. Not once in those 10 years did gun-related deaths ever match or overtake the number of drug-related deaths in a given year. The closest the gun deaths ever got was in 2004, when there were 29,569 gun-related deaths and 30,711 drug-related deaths. The next year, gun-related deaths increased to 30,694 but they were surpassed by the fact the drug-related deaths increased even more, reaching a total of 33,541. The separation between gun deaths and drug deaths steadily increased until finally, in 2013, the gap between gun deaths and drug deaths became a chasm, with drug-related deaths occurring nearly 30 percent more often gun deaths.
The DEA reports that the majority of drug-related deaths were methamphetamine and cocaine from 2007 to 2010. Cocaine deaths then diminished greatly and were replaced by heroin deaths and deaths via “controlled prescription drugs.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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