The following statistics come from an article in the Minnesota Post:
680 Americans were killed accidentally with guns each year between 2003 and 2007.
46 Americans committed suicide with guns each day between 2003 and 2007
Two-thirds of all murders between 2003 and 2007 involved guns. The average number of Americans shot and killed daily during those years was 33.Children in the U.S. get murdered with guns at a rate that is 13 times higher than that of other developed nations.
While I’m on the topic, Here are “Ten Arguments Gun Advocates Make, and Why They’re Wrong.”
These statistics seem suspect – how can the average (33) be less than the minimum of 46 suicides per day in the same period?
Why is anyone “stunned” by statements of the obvious? Guns are more lethal than blades, clubs, or bare hands. That’s why armies equipped with guns defeated armies equipped with swords, maces, and fists.
As with all powerful things, they can be beneficial or they can be detrimental. The objective is to maximize the benefit while minimizing the detriment. The problem is figuring out how to do that.
My take on guns is this:
Guns are tools. What determines the safety or lack thereof is in how they are used. The same type rifle used in a mass shooting is may also be used for protection from a wild animal or a rabid dog.
Banning guns is not the answer. Historically any type of ban or prohibition increase the demand, making the production, import and sale more profitable for organized crime.
Relaxing regulations is also not the answer. Recent events in the news bears witness to that.In both extremes a many gun owners lack the knowledge to handle, store and maintain a gun properly and safely.
Several places around the world mandate gun ownership for citizens, but also require the owner to be held responsible for the use of the firearm.
This is where our culture fails us. Movies and TV portray gun related violence in a positive manner, and in most cases there are no repercussions. In our current era of irresponsible politics, it will only get worse.
From the Journal of the American Medical Association:
December 21, 2012
Silencing the Science on Gun Research
Snips:
“What actions can the nation take to prevent more such acts [Newtown shooting] from happening, or at least limit their severity? More broadly, what can be done to reduce the number of US residents who die each year from firearms, currently more than 31,000 annually?”
“Decades of research have been devoted to understanding the factors that lead some people to commit violence against themselves or others. Substantially less has been done to understand how easy access to firearms mitigates or amplifies both the likelihood and consequences of these acts.”
“For example, background checks have an effect on inappropriate procurement of guns from licensed dealers, but private gun sales require no background check. Laws mandating a minimum age for gun ownership reduce gun fatalities, but firearms still pass easily from legal owners to juveniles and other legally proscribed individuals, such as felons or persons with mental illness. Because ready access to guns in the home increases, rather than reduces, a family’s risk of homicide in the home, safe storage of guns might save lives.”
“…in 1996, pro-gun members of Congress mounted an all-out effort to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Although they failed to defund the center, the House of Representatives removed $2.6 million from the CDC’s budget—precisely the amount the agency had spent on firearm injury research the previous year.”;”…the following language was added to the final appropriation: ‘none of the funds made available for injury prevention and control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may be used to advocate or promote gun control.'”
“Two years later, Congress extended the restrictive language it had previously applied to the CDC to all Department of Health and Human Services agencies, including the National Institutes of Health.”
“…today, 17 years after this legislative action, the CDC’s website lacks specific links to information about preventing firearm-related violence.”
“In 2011, Florida’s legislature passed and Governor Scott signed HB 155, which subjects the state’s health care practitioners to possible sanctions, including loss of license, if they discuss or record information about firearm safety that a medical board later determines was not “relevant” or was “unnecessarily harassing.”;”Similar bills have been proposed in 7 other states.”
“The US military is grappling with an increase in suicides…a little-noticed provision in the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act…prevents military commanders and noncommissioned officers from being able to talk to service members about their private weapons, even in cases in which a leader believes that a service member may be suicidal.”
“Given the chance, could researchers achieve similar progress with firearm violence? It will not be possible to find out unless Congress rescinds its moratorium on firearm injury prevention research. Since Congress took this action in 1997, at least 427,000 people have died of gunshot wounds in the United States, including more than 165,000 who were victims of homicide. To put these numbers in context, during the same time period, 4,586 Americans lost their lives in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
–Arthur L. Kellermann, MD, MPH; Frederick P. Rivara, MD, MPH
References and data sources cited in the article:
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1487470
Write your congress representatives to ask why these efforts to block research and public information are accepted official policies.