“Every conversation about gun deaths should begin by recognizing one blindingly clear fact about this problem — the United States is on its own planet. The gun-related death rate in the United States is 10 times that of other advanced industrial countries. Places such as Japan and South Korea have close to zero gun-related deaths in a year. The United States has around 30,000.”
— Fareed Zakaria
The merchants of death are telling their lies again in the wake of yet another mass shooting. They want us to believe that stricter gun control laws would have no effect on the level of gun violence in the United States. To believe this lie one must ignore the experiences of other countries and even some historical examples here in the United States.
The rate of gun deaths in the United States is 40 times higher than in Britain. It is also true that America has 14 times as many guns, per capita, as in Britain and far fewer laws regarding their ownership and use. These two facts are causally connected — no matter how cleverly the Republicans deny the facts or how smoothly they change the subject. More guns = more gun deaths.
In pursuit of greater profits, the merchants of death try to convince us that even more guns will make us safer. Some people actually believe this nonsense. Every time there is a mass shooting, the sale of guns goes up! But the facts show that this behavior is self-defeating, and ultimately this irrationality will be disastrous.
“States that have some of the highest percentages of gun ownership have some of the highest gun-related death rates (Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Arkansas), and those with some of the lowest rates of gun ownership generally have the lowest gun-related death rates (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island).” — Fareed Zakaria
Connecticut passed a law in 1995 that made purchasing a gun more difficult. The gun-related homicide rate over the following decade was 40 percent lower than had been projected. In 2007, Missouri made it easier to buy a gun. The gun-related homicide rate in Missouri over the next 5 years was 25 percent higher than had been projected.
Gun violence in the United States is an increasingly serious public health problem. But for two decades the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been prevented from doing any research “that could be considered to be promoting gun control” by a 1996 law pushed through by the National Rifle Association. Politicians have forced doctors and scientists to keep silent about any solutions that might save lives because they believe any kind of gun control would be bad for the gun business. These politicians value power and gain more than human life.
Ironically, during the week of the Las Vegas massacre, Republicans in the US House of Representatives were about to pass a bill to make it easier for the public to buy silencers for their guns. They have postponed the vote, but no doubt it will come back quietly in a few weeks after Las Vegas has faded from the news cycle.
Ignoring these facts is insanity. We must open our eyes and do something before tragedy strikes again.
“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” (Hosea 8: 7)
Source: Fareed Zakaria, “Talking about mental health after mass shootings is a cop-out”, Washington Post, October 5, 2017.
A sane and to the point post. Nicely done. Of course, when Sean Hannity can claim that he’d use his pistol to take out the shooter while he was changing magazines, ignoring the fact that the shooter was 32 floors up, and had dozens of weapons, including several hundred-round magazines… And the NRA is a well organized one-trick pony.
Just curious to know what is Utah’s gun ownership to gun deaths ratio. How do we rate between the two examples given?
The Firearm Mortality by State data in 2015 shows Utah to be 20th highest in the nation, which is higher than the national average. You can see this information in the link above (Click on “highest gun-related death rates”). I don’t have statistical information about the gun ownership rate in Utah, but I know the Republicans in the Utah Legislature keep making it easier to buy and carry guns. You may also notice in the linked map that the gun-related death rate in Utah has gone up over the last ten years. Again, I think these two facts are related.