Sunday, September 22, 2013

American gun use is out of control. Shouldn't the world intervene? | Henry Porter | Comment is free | The Observer

To restore sanity Repeal the Second Amendment!  If the Americans won't do it, perhaps the UN should put the U.S. into a trusteeship. - GWC
American gun use is out of control. Shouldn't the world intervene? | Henry Porter | Comment is free | The Observer:

To absorb the scale of the mayhem, it's worth trying to guess the death toll of all the wars in American history since the War of Independence began in 1775, and follow that by estimating the number killed by firearms in the US since the day that Robert F. Kennedy was shot in 1968 by a .22 Iver-Johnson handgun, wielded by Sirhan Sirhan. The figures fromCongressional Research Service, plus recent statistics fromicasualties.org, tell us that from the first casualties in the battle of Lexington to recent operations in Afghanistan, the toll is 1,171,177. By contrast, the number killed by firearms, including suicides, since 1968, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI, is 1,384,171.

That 212,994 more Americans lost their lives from firearms in the last 45 years than in all wars involving the US is a staggering fact, particularly when you place it in the context of the safety-conscious, "secondary smoke" obsessions that characterise so much of American life.

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