Lots of Noise--Not Much To Back It Up

Yes, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings are tragic. It is a despicable act, done by what had to be a deranged individual who saw the school as a target. However, it is no different from other incidents that have occurred in the past.

We went to the NY Crime Commission report on mass murders (those who kill more than four at a time) and the data found there is enlightening. The source of this information can be found at: http://www.nycrimecommission.org/initiative1-shootings.php

There are several ways to look at this information. We are going to look at three.

1--Over the 28 years covered by this report there were 30 events which killed 290 people which means 9.67 persons killed in each incident. If you remove the four worst deadliest events from the total, the per incident death rate falls to 7.2

2--Of the 30 events:
       -18 of the perpetrators died by suicide (two at Columbine)
       - 3 were killed by police (suicide by cop)
       - 8 were convicted of their crimes--two were convicted and are now free
       - 2 are still on trial (at the time of the preparation of the report)

3--The three deadliest crimes were:
       - Virginia Tech where 32 died
       - Sandy Hook where 27 died
       - Luby Cafeteria where 23 died and
       - McDonalds where 21 died

Our point is not to minimize the immensity of the crimes that occurred over the past 28 years, but to point out that there are far more serious situations that need addressing.

Yes, tragic but hardly an emergency. The rush to put in onerous gun control is politically grandstanding and if government were really concerned with deaths, they would be attacking the real causes. More people die each day from medical reasons, accidental falls, poisoning deaths and cars than all of mass murders have caused in the past 28 years!

The problem is hardly a gun. It is the nut who fires the gun!

For your information we present the following statistics regarding car accidents and other causes of accidental deaths as a frame of reference:

National Car Accident Statistics (2010)

• The number of highway deaths fell to 32,885 in 2010. It’s the lowest number since 1949.
• Fatalities in accidents involving drunk drivers dropped 4.9%. Approximately 10,228 people died.
• There were about 3,092 deaths in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2010.
• Motorcycle deaths increased in 2010 to 4,502.
• Pedestrian deaths also increased to 4,280 in 2010.
• While fatal crashes decreased, the number of crashes involving injuries increased to 1,546,000 – an increase of 1.9%.
• Pennsylvania was one of the states that saw an increase in fatalities. The number of deaths rose to 1,324 — an increase of more than 5%. Other states with increases in the number of fatalities include Connecticut, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.

Source: http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/car-accident-statistics.html

Mortality

All unintentional injury deaths

• Number of deaths: 118,021
• Deaths per 100,000 population: 38.4
• Cause of death rank: 5

Unintentional fall deaths

• Number of deaths: 24,792
• Deaths per 100,000 population: 8.1

Motor vehicle traffic deaths

• Number of deaths: 34,485
• Deaths per 100,000 population: 11.2

Unintentional poisoning deaths

• Number of deaths: 31,758
• Deaths per 100,000 population: 10.3

Source: Deaths: Final Data for 2009, tables 9, 18  [PDF - 2.1 MB]

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/acc-inj.htm

We want a fully informed decision on guns. It is hardly the issue that the press, the New York Crime Commission and the political class would like you to believe. We must stop this rush to judgment. 

Conservative Tom