War, homicide, suicide, guns
I saw a tweet that staggered me.
Number of Americans killed on battlefields in all wars in history:
1,396,733
Killed by firearms in the US since 1968:
1,516,863
(NYT)
— richard bacon (@richardpbacon) October 2, 2017
Seriously?
Apparently so, yes. Politifact investigated and confirmed.
In a column published shortly after the on-air slayings of two TV journalists in southwestern Virginia, the New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof offered some “data points” about the pervasiveness of gun violence in the United States.
One of them was: “More Americans have died from guns in the United States since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in American history.”
That sounded familiar. Really familiar. As it turns out, the web version of Kristof’s column sourced a PolitiFact article from Jan. 18, 2013, that fact-checked commentator Mark Shields’ claim that since 1968, “more Americans have died from gunfire than died in … all the wars of this country’s history.” (Shields used the year 1968 because it was the year presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated by gunman Sirhan Sirhan.)
We rated the claim True.
Two and a half years later, we wondered whether the statistic still held up, so we took a new look at the data.
They show their sources and add up the columns.
So the statistic still holds up: There have been 1,516,863 gun-related deaths since 1968, compared to 1,396,733 cumulative war deaths since the American Revolution. That’s 120,130 more gun deaths than war deaths — about 9 percent more, or nearly four typical years worth of gun deaths. And that’s using the most generous scholarly estimate of Civil War deaths, the biggest component of American war deaths.
We’ll offer some added thoughts for context.
These figures refer to all gunfire-related deaths, not just homicides. In fact, homicides represent a minority of gun deaths, with suicides comprising the biggest share. In 2013, according to CDC data, 63 percent of gun-related deaths were from suicides, 33 percent were from homicides, and roughly 1 percent each were from accidents, legal interventions and undetermined causes.
That’s a lot of suicides.
It will just go on, and on, and on…. and never stop… at least until the return of Our Lord.
Which means forever.
The settlers went armed into the American wilderness, ready to take on serious wild animals, native people skilled with their own non-firearm weapons. They got into keeping and trading slaves, also requiring firearms. Then they had the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War and the Spanish-American War, two world wars, Korea and the one they lost, in Vietnam. Then the Reagan Wars in Central America.
It would seem that Americans each have a better than world average chance of stopping at least one bullet in the course of their lives; a fact that comes straight out of their past, and by express delivery.
Sad, but true.
And this week our local newspaper reported on a 3 year old who shot and killed other 3 year olds at a day care center (in someone’s house). From what I can tell, this was a licensed day care center, which brings up a WTF? How loaded guns in a licensed day care? How? Why? For what possible purpose would anyone have loaded guns in the same place as toddlers?
My father had guns his entire life. He had children. None of his children ever shot each other or themselves. His guns were locked up. They were unloaded until he went hunting. His ammo was locked up. He took all of us out and taught us to shoot and taught us gun safety.
If people want their second amendment rights (which have only recently been decided by the Supreme Court to apply to individuals anyway), they need to act more like my father, and less like children with fancy toys, or less like entitled rage monsters.
https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1677267425625045/?type=3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1677277685624019/?type=3&theater
One of the most visible results of Australia’s 1997 gun control reform was a drop in suicide. Unsirprisinly, having fewer tools for immediate death means people are less likely to kill themselves during a crisis and will instead do the hard work of surviving.
One of the biggest direct cases I’ve seen was the Israeli armed forces. It used to be that they could keep their guns at home. Then they changed the rules–you could only take them home on weeknights, but not weekends. The number of suicides during the week remained relatively constant, but the death toll on the weekends plummeted to the point that the overall suicide rate dropped by 40%. It made it very clear–suicide is generally an impulsive decision, and if someone doesn’t have immediate access to a fast & certain means of killing themselves, they’ll likely pull through.