33,636 Gun Deaths Visualized

According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2013 all deaths due to firearms in the US amounted to 33,636 people. That sure seems like a big number. I decided to see what 33,636 of anything looked like. What follows are gun emoji shown at about 28pt using Apple’s emoji font in Textedit screencaptured. Every single one represents a person that died by gunshot in the US in 2013. I counted them all, and there are in fact, thirty three thousand, six hundred and thirty six of them. Go ahead and start scrolling.

That’s all of them. 33,636 in just one year. Every one of those guns is a life cut short, a life that could have been lived. A person that contributed to society and now is no more. Thirty three thousand, six hundred and thirty six. Every single year in America, all by guns, and still we do nothing.