[Data Visualization] More Americans killed by guns since 1968 than in all U.S. wars

More Americans have died from guns in the United States since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in American history. Each year, the number of firearm-related deaths reach almost the equivalent of U.S. casualties in Korean War.

► 2016 New version available! This visualization has been updated. Have a look at the new version here: [Visualization] More Americans have died from guns since 2001 than in Korean and Vietnam wars

► Please note that this post simply visualize the informations contained in Nicholas Kristof’s and Louis Jacobson’s articles (links below), who discuss precisely the nature and consistency of the data (read them before taking this data visualization as a simple pro- or anti-gun campaign).

CC-BY-SA Data visualization freely reusable with a link to this post.

In a recent article, 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).

The visualization above is a simple contribution to the understanding of this reality.