edited (12/19/15): updated data views and links

Tableau Public: Homicides, Deaths, and Firearms. Oh my!

Each day around the world, media and word-of-mouth information sharing is happening with small fragments of information, rather than with dynamic, rich data. This can cause huge misunderstandings, sensationalism, and policy changes that don’t actually address a problem. I finally decided to do something about that.

I chose to investigate murder (yes, murder) in the US and firearm deaths because as an avid left-winger, some level of increased gun control has always appealed to me as a concept. I should also disclose that I hail from a southern family with proud hunting heritage. I guess I’m an anomaly in that way.

However, I’m not one to let fear guide my political support so I took a deep look at exactly how often people are murdered, and by whom, and if guns were involved. I also looked at how often this occurred in comparison to other causes of death. Basically, I wanted to answer these questions: Who is being killed and by whom? What was going on that led to murder? How did they do it? How often does this happen? What’s really likely to kill me? Should I be afraid of guns? Or lawnmowers, instead?!?

The answers are in the link posted at the beginning of this story and in screenshots of the data visualizations below. This is not a fully comprehensive look at the rich data provided by the FBI and CDC and there are many other ways to slice this data. If you’d like to see more visualizations, please leave a comment here. I’m happy to provide context-rich information to you on this topic. Let’s learn together.

Like what you see? Visit the Tableau public link below to interact with these data visualizations!

Tableau Public: Homicides, Deaths, and Firearms. Oh my!

Pt2: