The Liberal=20 Doomsayer
Our =E2=80=9CSecond Amendment Slaughter=E2=80=9D = On Guns
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Not a lot to say on this, mainly because =
I=E2=80=99ve beaten the=20
topic to death already, but Parade Magazine tells us the following from =
Thirteen killed at an immigration center in New York. Eight at a = nursing=20 home in North Carolina. Five in a house in California. These were = among the 57=20 people killed in mass shootings in a 30-day period this spring in the = U.S.=20 Meanwhile, new laws are easing restrictions on guns.
Congress recently approved a bill to allow guns in national parks.=20 Tennessee has passed similar measures for its state parks. In South = Carolina,=20 a bill under debate would allow weapons on school grounds. Texas may = welcome=20 guns into bars. In Montana, a new law requires landlords and hotel = owners to=20 allow firearms on their premises.
=E2=80=A6
Gun-control advocates argue that weakening laws is disastrous. = While it=20 wouldn=E2=80=99t necessarily lead to more mass shootings, they say, it = would almost=20 certainly increase the number of gun-related murders in the U.S. There = are=20 currently more than 11,500 each year, and America has one of the = world=E2=80=99s=20 highest firearm homicide rates. Per capita, our rate is 39 times = greater than=20 that of England, 13 times Australia=E2=80=99s, and 6 times = Canada=E2=80=99s.
=E2=80=9CWe have the equivalent of a Virginia Tech massacre = every day in=20 this country. It=E2=80=99s just not all in one = place,=E2=80=9D says Daniel Webster of=20 the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.
Meanwhile, in the world of sanity, Bob Herbert told us the following = in April=20 from here=20 (Parade quotes 11,500 gun fatalities per year, but Herbert bumps that up = by=20 about 500, as you=E2=80=99ll see)=E2=80=A6
There is no way to overstate the horror of gun violence in America. = Roughly=20 16,000 to 17,000 Americans are murdered every year, and more than = 12,000 of=20 them, on average, are shot to death. This is an insanely violent = society, and=20 the worst of that violence is made insanely easy by the widespread=20 availability of guns.
=E2=80=A6
While more than 12,000 people are murdered with = guns=20 annually, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (using the latest = available data) tells us that more than 30,000 people are killed over = the=20 course of one typical year by guns. That includes 17,000 who commit = suicide,=20 nearly 800 who are killed in accidental shootings and more than 300 = killed by=20 the police. (In many of the law enforcement shootings, the police = officers are=20 reacting to people armed with guns).
And then there are the people who are shot but don=E2=80=99t die. = Nearly 70,000=20 fall into that category in a typical year, including 48,000 who are = criminally=20 attacked, 4,200 who survive a suicide attempt, more than 15,000 who = are shot=20 accidentally, and more than 1,000 =E2=80=94 many with a gun in = possession =E2=80=94 who are=20 shot by the police.
The medical cost of treating gunshot wounds in the U.S. is = estimated to be=20 well more than $2 billion annually. And the Violence Policy Center, a = gun=20 control advocacy group, has noted that nonfatal gunshot wounds are the = leading=20 cause of uninsured hospital stays.
The toll on children and teenagers is particularly heartbreaking. = According=20 to the Brady Campaign, more than 3,000 kids are shot to death in a = typical=20 year. More than 1,900 are murdered, more than 800 commit suicide, = about 170=20 are killed accidentally and 20 or so are killed by the police.
Another 17,000 are shot but survive.
And by the way, the Parade Magazine story contains a poll asking if = states=20 should loosen restrictions on guns. Of those polled, 94 percent said = yes.
God bless America (and =E2=80=9Cthanks=E2=80=9D once more to =
Hangin=E2=80=99 Judge JR and the=20
Supremes for enshrining a =E2=80=9Cright=E2=80=9D to own a gun that =
never before existed
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