The English are worried about us. They fear we are addicted to guns. Henry Porter, writing for The Observer, notes that “If another country were killing its own people at such rates, the U. S would demand an intervention.” (“American needs an intervention,” by Henry Porter, The Observer, reprinted in The Week, October 4, 2013 pg. 14) He thinks it’s time for Britain and Europe to confront our government about its tolerance for senseless violence.
How is it, Porter wonders, that “Americans seem blind to the problem, even as they clamor for laws to make everything safer – mandating helmets and seat belts, banning drop-side baby cribs, even outlawing scalding coffee.” (Ibid)
He’s to right to be dumbfounded. The statistics for gun violence have gone through the roof. Another British publication makes the case more graphic. TheGuardian.com culled the records of American military casualties from the Revolutionary war to the present and compared that data to victims of criminal assaults. According to US statistics, the number of people killed in all our wars, foreign and domestic, from 1775 to present, comes to 1.17 million. By way of contrast, the number of people killed by firearms since 1968 is a staggering 1.33 million. (Ibid, pg. 18.) No wonder people around the globe look at us and scratch their heads.
Unfortunately, gun control, is a visceral subject, one unlikely to be influenced by reason or statistics. I see no way for us to explain why our citizens are required to wear seat belts in a car but are considered fair targets in our schools, our shopping malls and our streets. I was once a member of the NRA. I won several medals in rifle competitions but I don’t understand our myopia myself.
(Courtesy of beforeitsnews.com)
