But it doesn't end there. More than 30,000 people are killed over the course of one typical year by guns. That includes 17,000 who commit suicide, nearly 800 who are killed in accidental shootings and more than 300 killed by the police. (In many of the law enforcement shootings, the police officers are reacting to people armed with guns).
And then there are the people who are shot but don’t die. Nearly 70,000 fall into that category in a typical year, including 48,000 who are criminally attacked, 4,200 who survive a suicide attempt, more than 15,000 who are shot accidentally, and more than 1,000 — many with a gun in possession — who are shot by the police.
The medical cost of treating gunshot wounds in the U.S. is estimated to be well more than $2 billion annually. And the Violence Policy Center, a gun control advocacy group, has noted that nonfatal gunshot wounds are the leading cause of uninsured hospital stays.
What's your opinion? Is this guy and his newspaper a shill for the anti-gun movement? Do you think these stats are cooked, as they say?
What I want to know is how can any responsible gun owner not feel personally touched by this. I don't seem to be hearing that from them. Mainly I get defensive posturing about how each person is responsible for his own actions and how all this violence has nothing to do with them. I keep hearing that the guns are not to blame, it's the violent people using them.
I remain unconvinced. Once I was asked what if anything would convince me to change my position. I said I don't think there is anything. Now, that's not the same as saying there's absolutely nothing you could show me that would change my mind. In fact, I read every pro-gun comment and most of the attachments. I read pro-gun blogs and comment on them. I have kept an open mind, but remain unconvinced.
I really believe if I were a gun owner who professed to be exercising his 2nd Amendment rights, I would feel partly responsible for this. Does that make sense to you? Can you understand what I'm saying?
As far as a solution goes, I am convinced that the proliferation of firearms plays a part in much of this bloodshed, and diminishing the number of available guns would address that.
What's your opinion?