During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on March 26, 2019, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) claimed there have been more “gun violence” deaths the last 49 years than deaths that resulted from all U.S. wars combined.
Booker chose 49 because that is his age, and he claimed more people have died via “gun violence” during his lifetime than have died in every U.S. war, beginning with the Revolutionary War until now.
Booker opened by expressing gratitude for the gun control hearing. He then said, “There is just too much carnage in our country. I’m 49-years-old, and in my lifetime alone, there’s been more people who have died in our country due to gun violence than all the wars combined, going back to the Revolutionary War. It is a stunning amount of pain and hurt and agony.”
The problem with Booker’s claim is that it is demonstrably false. In fact, the only way his claim can be made to work is by adding suicides to “gun violence” deaths, thereby swelling annual “gun violence” numbers by 66 percent.
For example, there are roughly 10,000-11,000 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. each year. These represent actual “gun violence”: an American using a firearm to kill another American. If we take 11,000 x 49 (Booker’s age) we get 539,000 deaths. And that figure is smaller than the number of people who were killed in the U.S. Civil War alone.
In other words, Booker’s claim collapses.
There are approximately 20,000-22,000 firearm-related suicides each year. It is only by adding these — and counting them as “gun violence” deaths, along with homicides — that Booker is able to put forward his claim.
The math — 22,000 suicides plus 11,000 “gun violence” deaths = 33,000. Multiply 33,000 times 49 and the result is 1,617,000 deaths.
How does this compare to war?
- Brown University’s Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs put U.S. Troop deaths for Iraq and Afghanistan at 6,800 by the end of 2018.
- The Watson Institute reports over 7,800 U.S. contractors were killed during the same time frame.
- Number of U.S. deaths in Vietnam War — Approximately 58,000
- Number of U.S. deaths in Korea War — Approximately 35,000
- Number of U.S. deaths in World War II — Approximately 418,000
- Number of U.S. deaths in World War I — Approximately 115,000
- Number of U.S. deaths in the Spanish/American War — Approximately 3,000
- Number of U.S. deaths in the Civil War — 600,000 to 620,000
The total of those figures puts us at 1,263,600, and we still have yet to count the War of 1812 and the Revolutionary War.
Again, if we look at actual “gun violence” deaths juxtaposed with deaths from all U.S. wars combined, we get 539,000 “gun violence” deaths compared to 1,263,600 war deaths, and the latter is only a partial count. The only way to make Booker’s claim work is to add suicides in with homicides and count them as one and the same.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.