California gun sales jump; gun injuries, deaths fall

[Subdeacon Joe]

CA gun sales up, injuries and crime down.

 

Gun deaths and injuries have dropped sharply in California, even
as the number of guns sold in the state has risen, according to new
state data.

Dealers sold 600,000 guns in California last year, up from 350,000 in 2002, according to records of sale tallied by the California Attorney General's office.

During
that same period, the number of California hospitalizations due to gun
injuries declined from about 4,000 annually to 2,900, a roughly 25
percent drop, according to hospital records collected by the California Department of Public Health.

Firearm-related deaths fell from about 3,200 annually to about 2,800, an 11 percent drop, state health figures show.

Most of the drop in firearm-related injuries and deaths can be explained by a well-documented, nationwide drop in violent crime.

The
number of California injuries and deaths attributed to accidental
discharge of firearms also has fallen. The number of suicide deaths
involving firearms has remained roughly constant.

Two caveats:
State figures track gun sales, not ownership. They treat a family's
first gun purchase the same as a collector's twelfth. Second, gun sales
in California peaked in the early 1990s, as violent crime also peaked.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/27/5079151/california-gun-sales-increase.html#storylink=cpy

[Virgil Ray Hality, SASS# 37355]

Interesting stats. wonder about the peak in the 90s. Not the same in thenext decade.