According to the Center For Disease Control (CDC), the leading cause of deaths in the US lists homicide as number 15, and only a portion are caused by guns!. We have much larger problems than gun deaths! (The site address is listed at the bottom of the posting.)
The use of the "red herring" of gun deaths is a false argument which is intended to take our eyes off the real issues that face this country. We have a government that has not passed a budget in over three years, we are borrowing money at a rate that will soon bankrupt the nation and our legislators go home for Christmas vacation without taking the necessary actions to avoid a "fiscal cliff."
We have severe problems and all the press could focus on is the dreadful death of 26 people at the hands of a mad man in Connecticut. We need to train our eyes on the real problems and not be distracted by Legislators who are incompetent, irresponsible and interested ONLY in their re-election.
This is NOT the time to take away a citizen's right to defend himself not only from the bad guys but from the government itself! We will need to protect ourselves soon!
Conservative Tom
Mortality experience in 2009
• In 2009, a total of 2,437,163 resident deaths were registered in
the United States.
• The age-adjusted death rate, which takes the aging of the popu
lation into account, was 741.1 deaths per 100,000 U.S. standard
population.
• Life expectancy at birth was 78.5 years.
• The 15 leading causes of death in 2009 were:
1. Diseases of heart (heart disease)
2. Malignant neoplasms (cancer)
3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases
4. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke)
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries)
6. Alzheimer’s disease
7. Diabetes mellitus (diabetes)
8. Influenza and pneumonia
9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney
disease)
10. Intentional self-harm (suicide)
11. Septicemia
12. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis
13. Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal dis
ease (hypertension)
14. Parkinson’s disease
15. Assault (homicide)
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_03.pdf
Your assumption seems to be that homicide is #15 and, therefore, is not a problem in the U.S. I think the better empirical indicator of gun culture violence is the rate of firearm homicide -- both the absolute rate as well as the rate in comparison to non-firearm homicide.
ReplyDeleteCompared to most other countries, we have a high rate of firearm homicide, and most other countries have a much higher rate of non-firearm homicide than firearm homicide. We are a "gun culture" with more guns the population…
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvinco.html
--David
P.S. Even before gun violence came into the spotlight again, the politicians weren't serious about the "fiscal cliff." so the recent prominence of the gun control issue is not an excuse for their inaction on the deficit. It is not that they can't deal with two issues at one time. They can't seem to deal with anything!