The Media Doesn’t Talk About Suicide

Slate has been collecting media reports on gun deaths since Newton. What they found was a big discrepancy between the gun deaths reported in the media and the actual gun deaths as counted by the CDC. Chris Kirk explains:

The CDC counts about 32,000 people killed with guns each year, while Slate’s database only has one-third of that. Why the huge discrepancy?

Earlier this month Slate launched an effort to categorize the gun deaths in our system. That effort verified the source of the discrepancy: suicides. We’ve missed nearly all gun-related suicides, because our information is based on media reports, and the media typically avoid reporting on suicides.

The Media’s Picture of Gun Violence (suicides in red)

The CDC’s Picture of Gun Violence (suicides in red)

Justin Briggs and I also have an article in Slate on suicides and guns. I’ll cover that  in another post.