Francis Wilkinson, Columnist

This Is Why the NRA Hates Gun Violence Research

The CDC’s data exposes the gun lobby’s arguments as propaganda.

February 23, 2020 at 1:00 PM UTC

Francis Wilkinson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US politics and policy. Previously, he was executive editor for the Week and a writer for Rolling Stone.

Losing his way.
Photographer: Bryan Woolston/Getty Images North America

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its annual tabulation of firearm deaths earlier this month. Among other attributes, it amounts to a data-rich refutation of gun-lobby propaganda.

Almost 40,000 Americans were killed by gunshot in 2018, roughly the same number as in 2017. Of those, 13,958 resulted from homicide, and a whopping 24,432 from suicide. Other deaths were unintentional, undetermined or related to law enforcement or war.