What if all firearms in the world suddenly disappeared with no way to get them back?
Guns obviously cannot just magically vanish. But this thought experiment allows us to remove politics from the equation and rationally consider what we could gain – and lose – should we ever actually decide to have fewer guns around. Here are a few bullet points:
• Approximately 500,000 people around the world are killed by guns each year.
• In the US, citizens own 300 to 350 million guns in total.
• In the US gun homicide rates are more than 25 times higher than the combined rate of other high-income nations.
• About 100 people in the US die every day as a result of a gunshot.
• Around 60% of the 175,700 US firearm deaths from 2012 to 2016 were suicides. What’s more, most survivors of suicide attempts never go on to take their own life.
• In the US, 50 women are shot to death by partners each month.
• In the US, however, nearly 1,000 citizens are annually killed by police. Many of those deaths would likely be prevented were guns not involved.
• that the firearms industry accounts for $50 billion
• . Gun death and injury-related expenses add up to direct losses of around $10.7 billion (£7 billion) per year, and more than$200 billion (£140 billion) when other factors are taken into account
• In Australia, where a ban on semi-automatic shotguns and rifles has been in effect for over twenty years, the homicides rapidly reduced by 50% and show no sign of rising again, and suicides dropped by 80%.
The Australian example bears more discussion, so it will be Part 2 of this blog on “No Guns”
The number of mass killings in the United States in recent months, some within hours of each other, have again focused attention on gun control.
Predictably the legislators bought by the National Rifle Association (NRA), and that is many and at all levels, have trotted out the same old, tired, excuses of second amendment rights in the U.S. Constitution. Pathetically, their first response is to ask for prayers for the fallen and their families as if that will help the problem.
Unfortunately, evidence doesn’t seem to have any effect on the faithful – see my blog that the US gun lobby is a religion. Perhaps the other blog on using the IRS to bring the NRA down might work.
I cannot believe that the NRA can have so thoroughly indoctrinated the U.S. public that they will continue to allow this lunacy to continue and flourish. Unfortunately, it all too obviously has done just that.
Maybe we should get the NRA and the gun lobby officially recognized as a religion…and then re-write the Constitution to fully separate Church and State. A bit drastic, but drastic is what we need in spades!
