How would I gather statistics about shootings in the U.S.?

I have an idea, which I’m not very serious about because I think it would be too much effort, to collect statistics regarding shootings in the U.S. I would collect data on shootings reported to the police. The challenge is that every state and possibly every police department might collect this information differently, and some may not be easy to retrieve, though I would expect it would all be a matter of public record.

Any idea what the number would be for say, one year? I am guessing in the low thousands.

I figure that the effort would range somewhere between getting a single comprehensive report from a national database, up to contacting hundreds and hundreds of different overlapping agencies to get raw data in just as many formats.

I would determine the following about each incident, to the extent possible:

[ol]
[li]Was the shooting planned prior to the shooter’s arrival at the scene of the shooting? (This may be difficult to determine objectively in some cases)[/li][li]Did the shooter intend to fire the weapon? (Also difficult in some cases)[/li][li]Was the victim the intended victim? (Also difficult in some cases)[/li][li]How long had the shooter owned the gun prior to the shooting?[/li][li]Did the victim die?[/li][li]Did the victim know the shooter?[/li][li]Was the shooting in self-defense of an immediate perceived or real lethal threat? (as determined by legal authorities) (may be difficult to draw a conclusion in a case of drug dealers have a gunfight in the street vs. “man shoots armed intruder in home”)[/li][/ol]Even in a best-case scenario I imagine this would be a full-time job for about a year. Just wondering what it would take, though.

The DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics is what you want. They compile and issue reports on this type of thing, and you can find a lot of them on their site. The reports will contain detailed information about the methodology, including how they deal with differences in state reporting.

There’s also the Uniform Crime Report.

Also the UCR Expanded Homicide Data here. I know you’re looking for just shootings but thought it might be useful. Also, homicides by state and type of weapon used here.

And finally, if you go here (scroll down to aggravated assault) you can find links to tables that break it down by types of weapons used.