Happy New Year :( I found this story on Vox and it is sobering. 119 men and 28 women, across 34 states. I understand that we have a “gun” culture in this country ~ I grew up with a house that had guns, rifles and BB guns (for the kids). We were taught never to kill a living thing with our BB guns and my father kept his WWII guns, rifles and ammo under lock and key.
I never felt the need for a gun as an adult. But I get that other adults do. I may not agree with it, but I can understand it. What I DO NOT understand is that if you own a gun or two, why the hell can’t we have laws that state you must store your guns in a locked case, where no one can steal it? Why can’t we have tighter gun regulations and restrictions? Since when does our 2nd amendment, which states a well regulated militia, state that we can have unfettered access to any type of gun we want?
I am all for people wanting to own a gun, but make no mistake about it — gun ownership is DOWN. Gun sales are UP. That means more guns in fewer hands. I have to ask why? Why do people feel so unsafe? And don’t let people tell you that if you have a more armed population, that deaths will go down. Every time there is a mass shooting, one of the first things the right wingers state is “It was a gun free zone area. If it wasn’t, that wouldn’t have happened, as the good guy with a gun would have stopped that”. Research has shown that more guns = more gun deaths.
In 2012, Australia, who took measures over a decade ago to stop the madness, has 1.4 firearm homicides per 1 million people. The USA? Oh yeah, we are exceeding our American exceptionalism here. 29.7 homicides per million people by guns. Even runner-up Switzerland can’t touch us, as they have 7.7. My math is shitty, but that is a huge increase.
I applaud the President for taking action to counter measure the insanity that is Congress. The American People have his back on this one. And I thank him. His tears are the tears of every American who has lost someone to gun violence.
BTW ~ 128 people dead in the first 4 days is actually an improvement, as past data points to about 92 gun deaths daily in the USA, which means we should have had 368 gun deaths for the first 4 days. Of course, that is based on the whole year, so who knows?
I am not a very good writer, but I hope you will read the Vox article.
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