On Guns and Their Control ~ Data and Feelings

Greetings Dear Reader,

Frist let me express a feeling.  I feel that anyone who blames victims who are innocently killed needs to spend a great deal of time with a therapist.  I promise that my heart is broken over the loss of life in any shooting.  It is always wrong. 

Now a little bit of data.  I keep getting this idea that some in our society think that gun violence is somehow a predominant cause of unnecessary death in our culture.  Although I think that shootings must be stopped I do not think that taking away guns is the answer.  The logic of prohibition does not work and we do not apply it equally.

Here is some data with the source links for us to consider:

Car Related Deaths Per Year:  1,300,000

Abortion Deaths Per Year:  600,000

Cigarette Smoking Deaths Per Year:  480,000

Alcohol Related Deaths Per Year: 88,000

Drug Related Deaths Per Year: 64,000

Gun Homicides Per Year:  14,000

If we replaced any of the data in the rhetoric for outlawing guns with the “object” of the causes for other deaths, it would not be logical or we would object.  Let us begin with drugs.  We have outlawed the dangerous ones everywhere.  There are still 64,000 drug deaths per year.  We tried outlawing alcohol and it resulted in more crime and violence. 

We know that cigarettes kill people but they are still legal.  We have cities where there are laws that tax soda but you can still smoke cigarettes. You can get a product that kills 34 times more people a year than guns at any servo in the country. 

Then there is the data that seems completely insane to me.  46 x more abortions of innocent children are committed each year than gun homicides total.  They are both wrong but so is our perspective.  You would deny someone the right to own a gun because of what MIGHT happen.  You demand murder of the unborn on demand when death always occurs.  It troubles ne greatly that people will demand the right to murder the innocent while wishing to limit the rights of others to own an object.  Something is very wrong with this thinking. 

Do not think for a moment that I excuse or consider gun violence against humans acceptable.  I would posit that in a culture where we have devalued the life of the most innocent in our world we should not be surprised when madmen kill children.  The hypocrisy seems obvious to me.

If we follow the logic of denying someone something because of what he or she might do with it we are in trouble.  Does any of this sound reasonable:  People who consume alcohol to excess might drive drunk so we should not allow them cars even before their first DUI.  People who smoke cigarettes are going to become a burden on the medical communities so we should deny them healthcare.  People who speed might cause a life ending accident so we should deny them cars. 

We have a problem much deeper than who can and cannot own a gun.  We value what we want over life.  We demand our “rights” over the love and compassion we owe each other.  It is wrong to deny someone something because of what someone else did.  It is also wrong to have double standards on who can and cannot kill others at will.  We all need to realize that the problem is us.  It keeps coming down to that Dear Reader.

Wishing you joy in the journey,

Aramis Thorn

Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a home owner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure store.”

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