text: per capita death rate in washington d.c. vs iraq? i heard that washington d.c. had a higher percapita death rate that iraq.  i looked it up but couldn't find anything. easeing my curiosity would be appreciated? you probably heard that d.c. has a lower rate of death due to firearms. it's a moronic comparison because of all the troops killed by ied, etc. but here you go:   if you consider that there have been an average of 160,000 troops in the iraq theater of operations during the last 22 months, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000.   the rate in washington d.c. is 80.6 per 100,000. that means that you are 25% more likely to be shot and killed in our nation's capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in iraq.