Misleading Gun-Death Chart Draws Fire

data-visualizationstatisticsmisleading-chartsinverted-axis

Abstraction: Inverted y-axis made Florida gun deaths appear to fall after Stand Your Ground

Key points:

Reuters/Florida FDLE chart about gun deaths after Florida's 2005 Stand Your Ground law used a downward-increasing y-axis, visually implying deaths fell when they actually rose.
Gun deaths jumped from 521 (2005) to 740 (2006) and 825 (2007), but the inverted axis made the line appear to drop sharply.
Designer Christine Chan said she prefers showing deaths "in negative terms (inverted)" and cited an Iraq war infographic as inspiration.
No evidence of intentional deception; the chart illustrates risk of departing from graphical conventions without clear warning.
Kaiser Fung: "There should be a very high bar against running counter to convention. Readers bring their baggage to the chart."

Connections: Data Visualization · Statistical Bias