[TheMercenary]

More people died from poisoning than from firearms in 2004.

During 1979--2004, the three leading causes of injury death in the United States were motor-vehicle traffic, firearm, and poisoning (including drug overdose). In 2004, for the first time since 1968, when such data first became available, the number of reported poisoning deaths (30,308) and the age-adjusted poisoning death rate (10.3 per 1000,000 population) exceeded the number of firearm deaths (29,569) and the firearm death rate (10.0), respectively. During 1999--2004, the poisoning death rate increased 45%, whereas the firearm death rate declined 3%; during the same period, no change occurred in the rate (14.7) for motor-vehicle traffic deaths.

SOURCE: Mortality data from the National Vital Statistics Systems. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/deaths.htm.

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5550a6.htm