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"Suicides accounted for 55% of the nation's nearly 31,000 firearm deaths in 2005, the most recent year for which statistics are available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."--USA Today
It was a hard stat to find-- and it was for 2005. Something is killing our people at the rate of 31,000 a year and the CDC is tracking it four years late. If it was a new disease killing that many people, it'd be all over the headlines and in 6 of the slots on the Rec list.
I'm not gonna talk about the two mass-shootings in the last two days that have made national news.
I'm not gonna talk about the school shooting I was in where two people were killed. I've talked about that here before.
I'm not gonna talk about my friend and her eleven-year-old daughter who were murdered in their home. I don't even want to think about that.
Instead, I want to address the arguments that people use-- yeah, on this site, and also at NRA meetings-- to argue for our shoot-em-up American way of death, and to excuse the 80-some gun deaths a day in our country as necessary for Freedom.
Guns Don't Kill People. People Kill People
Sometimes accidentally. With guns. But as someone or other once said, People with guns kill people with alarming efficiency. A person who wants to take down as many of his fellow humans as possible needs a gun.
And it's hard to kill someone. After all they are someone. Much easier with a gun. You don't have to look into their eyes.
If they didn't have guns they'd use knives.
No doubt. But think about it. It's not that easy to get a knife into raw meat on the cutting board, and that meat isn't fighting back. And while you're focused on one victim, the other victims are fleeing and/or hitting you over the head with church pews, biology textbooks or frying pans, depending on your chosen setting. Even if you don't lose your taste for killing after the first one, your body count is still gonna be lower.
And picture this scene: Domestic argument. The husband has had all he can take and reaches into a dresser drawer and pulls out a gun/knife. Which of the two is most likely to end in him killing his wife and then adding in his three children for good measure?
These things happen in countries that have gun control too
In 2004, firearms were used to murder 56 people in Australia, 184 people in Canada, 73 people in England and Wales, 5 people in New Zealand, and 37 people in Sweden. In comparison, firearms were used to murder 11,344 in the United States." --The Brady Center
I need a gun to protect my family
Guns bought to protect the family are far more likely to be used against family members than against an intruder.
The guns are already out there
Indeed. So were the clackers (little pendulum toys which tended to shatter and blind the toyer), the radium-dial watches, and the hat-pins. And the Mace. But after the mass murder of 35 people in Port Arthur on April 29, 1996, Australia was able to reel in 650,000 guns, so I imagine we could do it too. (And they haven't had another mass shooting since. Knock on wood.)
It's in the Constitution
So's slavery. Our Founding Fathers weren't saints, much less gods, and they didn't envision women voting, senators elected by the people, or a black president. And they didn't envision submachine guns either.
The guns of their age were semi-accurate at 50 yards, hence the famous "Don't shoot till you see the whites of their eyes." They were as likely to misfire as not. A mass killing of the sort we're becoming all too familiar with was something our Founding Fathers couldn't have foreseen.
I need to be armed in case the government needs overthrowing
Er. In that case I don't suppose anti-gun laws are gonna stop you.
Update Regarding the suicide statistic, as most counselors will tell you, suicide is a "crime" of opportunity. A study of people who were prevented from jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge from its construction to 1971 found that less than 6% have since committed suicide. In England the introduction of a new kind of cooking gas with which it was more difficult to gas oneself led to an overnight reduction in the suicide rate.
Update 2 The comments have grown as abusive as I feared they would. To the larger number of kossacks who agree with me (going by recs vs. abusive comments), please don't be intimidated. You are in the majority, both on this board and nationally.
To the one or two gun owners who have stated their case without being abusive or belittling anybody: Thank you.