The headline of a recent Washington Post story reads, “How gun deaths became as common as traffic deaths.”
Many readers might assume that means gun deaths have skyrocketed in recent years, but the data included in the Post’s own story tell a different story.
It is true that gun deaths and motor vehicle deaths recently hit similar levels — only after a significant drop in traffic deaths. 
Here’s the graph WaPo included in its story:
Washington Post
Washington Post
Several Twitter users quickly accused the Washington Post of using a “deliberately misleading headline” to lead people to believe that gun deaths were on the rise.
Twitchy compiled some of the responses: