What's A Gun Got To Do With It?... Are US Firearm Deaths Overstated?

The above pictures have something in common…

This post concerns a series of articles published on americanthinker.com regarding America’s gun control debate.

Link to 1st article: What's A Gun Got To Do With It? Article #1

Below are screenshots that support data presented in article #2: Are US Firearm Deaths Overstated?

Data was queried from CDC Wonder and/or WISQARS databases and exported to Excel where basic arithmetic was applied.

While WISQARS primarily reports external injuries/fatalities, Wonder provides both internal (medical/congenital conditions, etc.) and external causes by ICD code.

ICD is an abbreviation for International Classification of Disease - authored by the World Health Organization and implemented in the US (e.g., CDC) in 1999.

After reviewing ICD code detail in CDC’s Wonder db it was discovered 8 in 10 CDC reported firearm deaths in America, among those aged 0 to 24, were “unspecified”.

Various sources claim “unspecified firearms” include air soft guns, BB (pellet) guns, flare guns, etc. (see gunpolicy.org excerpt below).

This finding is significant given Pew Research estimates nearly 100% of all firearms in the US may be classified as: 1) handguns OR 2) rifle, shotguns, and other large caliber weapons each of which has its own ICD code.

This raises the question: if nearly 100% of weapons in the US fall under 2 ICD codes, how can 8 in 10 firearm deaths among 0 to 24 year olds be “unspecified”? It can’t.

In March 2022 a medical research team was compelled to reduce CDC firearm injuries by 45% because “unspecified firearms” included non-powder [non-gun powder] firearms. From this it appears actual US firearm deaths are significantly lower than what is currently reported and/or headlined by news outlets in the US and abroad.

It’s also worth noting classifying 8 in 10 firearm deaths among 0 to 24 year olds as “unspecified” is akin to classifying 8 in 10 business expenses as “miscellaneous”. In the same way an auditor would demand transaction detail to validate expense classification so too Americans should demand transaction detail regarding “unspecified firearm” deaths to better understand the real number of firearm related deaths in America.

If anyone can shed light on this issue please leave it in the comments section below.