The 11,000 number is accurate. Unfortunately it doesn't show the whole picture. There were also 2,087 stabbing deaths in the states. So basically, guns outnumber knives 6-1, but that's only in deaths, not attacks. Guns are a more effective means of homicide. This does not make them necessarily evil. 2,968 people were murdered by fire, pushed off a building, blunt objects, etc. 86 people were poisoned. 304 criminals were killed by handguns of people defending themselves. Basically what I am saying here is that the problem isn't the guns, it's the drugs, poverty, gangs, etc. The murders would happen regardless of the means. Washington DC has the strictest gun control laws in the US, and their murder rate is 5 times higher than anywhere else in the country. What these numbers do NOT show is the unbelievely disproportionate nuumber of killings that happen in the inner-cities, as opposed to the rest of the country. Or the disproportionate numbers happening in state assisted housing.

Numbers can say anything you want them to.

And they can have my guns when they pry them from my cold dead fingers.