“In 2007, the United States suffered some 15,000-19,000
accidental shootings. More than 600 of these shootings proved fatal. Is that
"very rare"?
The total number of
Americans killed and wounded by gun accidents exceeds the
total number killed or injured in fires.
The number killed in gun accidents is 20% higher than the total
number killed in all U.S. civil aviation accidents.
In 2011, the Consumer Product Safety Commission voted to ban drop-side baby cribs because these cribs have been blamed
for "dozens" of infant deaths over the entire previous
decade. The 600+ accidental gun deaths in any single year amount to
50 dozen.
Back when the
Centers for Disease Control were allowed to do gun research, they found that American children under age 15 were nine times more likely
to die of a gun accident than children in other advanced wealthy
countries.
The
Centers for Disease Control reserve the term "very rare" for accidental
deaths from vaccines, the number of which is zero, or close to it. If more than
600 people a year were dying from vaccines, we'd have a national uproar, if not
a revolution."My Comment:
When I read these statistics, I can only conclude that most people against any gun regulation either don't know them, or are just making too much money from selling guns. In this age of cell phones and excellent 911 response (mostly) it's hard to see that guns are even needed for self-defense.
Yeah ban smoking, and junk food, and chainsaws, and vehicles, and gas, and electricity and anything else that causes harm... What makes you the mommy of other people? Why can't people choose what they buy and what they do? Unless they are violating another persons natural rights it's not your business. When they do they are arrested for breaking the law, you attempt to prosecute someone before they commit as crime, you attempt to control what others can and cannot buy. So what if people like you and me don't think they're worthwhile other people do. I would rather die by a gun then restrict the ability of other people to do as they wish within their rights, and this isn't meant to be dramatic it's simply the truth.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. You know, we do have reasonable regulations around other things that can cause harm. You can't smoke indoors in most public places now. Junk food can't have dangerous ingredients. Vehicles have to be registered and you need a license to operate one. You need a permit to install a gas stove, and there are many regulations about how a service station stores gas. And so on.
ReplyDeleteI think most people, myself included, are just asking for reasonable regulations around gun use.