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Americans Are More Likely To Die By Gun Violence Than Other Leading Causes Of Death

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - The issue of gun violence is front and center following the tragedy in Las Vegas. According to statistics, the odds of an American being killed by gun violence are higher than many other leading causes of death, including car accidents and fires.

For a Folsom man who survived the shooting in Las Vegas, the stats don't make much of a difference. He says he never lived in fear before and he refuses to do so now.

"Nobody expects that many gunshots at one time," said Folsom resident Greg Miller.

Like so many, Miller mourned tragedies across the country from afar.

"It could happen anywhere," he said.

On Sunday, "anywhere" was right where Miller was -- the Route 91 Country Music festival in Las Vegas with his wife, his friends and thousands of other country music fans.

"You think abut your family. I had to get my wife home.  That was it," said Miller.

Miller says he never worried about random attacks, even after seeing the aftermath of so many. But statistics show mass shootings may take more lives than we realize. According to 2014 data analyzed by the Business Insider, the odds of dying in a mass shooting is one in 15,000.

Staff attorney with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, Ari Freilich said, "The statistics are staggering."

Attorneys with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence say a majority of mass shootings happen inside private homes. Random, public shootings are rare, but gun deaths, in general, are not.  According to the National Safety Council, we are more likely to die by assault with a gun than we are to die in a car accident, a fire or by choking or drowning.

"That isn't normal.  It shouldn't be part of the American story or experience," said Freilich.

It's an experience Miller won't ever forget, but what he chooses to takes away from it, is the best of the human spirit he also witnessed that night.

"We saw acts of heroism everywhere around you."

And acts of bravery that continue.  Miller's family attended another concert they had planned Wednesday night at the Golden 1 Center, choosing to face another crowd and to not let this senseless act define them.

"I want to get it over with so that tomorrow when I wake up I say 'okay, see we can do this,'" he said.

The Law Center for Prevention of Gun Violence says it believes the statistics may actually underestimate the impacts of gun violence, saying in the last decade, more than a million people have been injured by guns in America.

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