Gun Control
Once again, the extremely predictable, semi-annual gun control debate is upon us... and just in time for the holiday season. Fact: each year there are about 11,000 deaths from homicide by firearms (“gun deaths”). This comes out to about 30 gun deaths each and every day. By contrast, there are about 1,060,000 abortions per year. This comes out to 2900 baby deaths per day (96 times more than gun deaths). Furthermore, Alzheimer’s kills 84,000 per year, the Flu kills 57,000 per year, suicide takes 41,000 per year, and Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease claims 149,000 per year. I know you saw that one coming.
If you want to talk big numbers, Cancer takes 584,000 per year and Heart Attacks wipe out 611,000 per year. It makes sense why there’s so much government focus on gun control right? I mean, in just the numbers presented so far, gun deaths account for almost half of one percent… or 0.4%. But let’s introduce the other big killers per year. Tobacco at 529,000 deaths, medical error at 195,000, unintentional injury at 118,000, alcohol at 107,000, car wreck at 34,000, drug abuse at 44,000, falling at 24,000. Yes, falling is more deadly than guns. But far worse than falling, you are more likely to die from your pooper going awry than by a gun. That’s right, diarrhea claims 1,260,000 lives per year. Even death by HIV is more prevalent than gun deaths. Shall we legislate penis control? As I’ve stated before, we should be fighting for utensil control since obesity kills 300,000 per year (27 times more than guns). We’ve got to stop these forks and spoons while we can. Surely people will stop over eating if they can’t get their hands on these deadly utensils, right?
In all seriousness, death by pretty much anything other than guns is more likely than death by guns. But let’s put logic aside, and applaud the perception of progress. It feels good to medicate symptoms instead of addressing the root issue. Speaking of medication, RX drug abuse kills 23,000 people per year. Yep, twice that of gun deaths. Back to progress - California has the most stringent gun control laws in the country, and good thing, because it’s really changed things. What’s that? It hasn’t? At all? Oh. Never mind, let’s just keep fighting for even better more tighter aggressive gun control. You know, hope & change, new & improved gun control 2.0. That’ll stop evil in its tracks for sure. Take that ISIS, we’re trying to make it harder for US citizens to have guns!