More on Gun Control

This issue continues to stir the national emotion, in an extremely disproportionate way. The loss of any human life is cause for sadness and concern, but we have to put the nearly 2.5 million deaths in America per year into proportion. Typically, around 11,000 Americans die each year from gun-related homicide, with another 19,000 dying from gun-related accident or suicide. By comparison, over 550,000 die from cancer, over 800,000 from cardiovascular disease and nearly 125,000 die accidentally. If we ban guns in a futile attempt to save the potentially 11,000 that will die each year from gunshots, do we ban hamburgers which are complicit in heart disease, obesity and E coli?

Certainly, we need improved gun control to prevent illegal transfers, juvenile access to weapons and to create records to trace ownership of guns used in violent crimes. More importantly, we need to deal with the underlying causes of gun-related violence: dysfunctional or non-existent families, unemployment, criminal behavior, mental illness, poverty - all issues which dramatically increase the probability that someone will die from a gunshot wound. Please read the comments at the following two links to get a deeper understanding of the problem and the "statistics" associated with it.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States

http://angrywhitedude.com/2012/12/understanding-the-numbers-on-gun-related-deaths/



Gun control is an important issue, worthy of Presidential interest and Congressional action. However, there might be more pressing, higher priority issues such as our sagging economy, national debt, lack of a funded budget and unemployment. Just resolving unemployment in this country will sharply reduce violent crime and gun-related deaths. Our politicians need to get on with governance that counts and let the windmill spin.