There was a time - when I had more free time - that I logged such things as accidental gun deaths vs the protection of one's property vs gun-inflicted suicide rates vs defense of one's self vs crazy mother fuckers with a gun. I have folders filled with articles and statistics. I have story after story about accidental shootings of spouses creeping in too late at night, of suicides made far too easy, of school shootings and of toddlers killing their siblings.
I hear the arguments for gun ownership. "No one is going to run off with MY plasma TV"... and I can concede that in 2010, of the almost THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND people killed by a firearm in the U.S., 1% were considered 'legal intervention' (which is primarily by police officers and also only 320 of those 32,000 deaths).
I hear the roar of the 2nd Amendment advocates too. Though I still maintain that our Founding Fathers couldn't even fathom an automatic weapon nor a time when free people would feel the need to be armed against one another, I do appreciate their claim to our Constitutional Right to bear arms.
But this isn't about home invasion or the Constitution. It's simply about collateral damage. How many kids need to be killed exactly to make it resonate that we - the sum of us - can't be trusted?
We have seat belt laws because we can't be counted on to keep ourselves safe without the fear of a traffic ticket. We recall everything from cribs that collapse when your baby's weight limit arguably exceeds any common sense, to bouncy seats because people set them on high counter tops unattended. We protect ourselves from ourselves.
There are people who are too stupid to realize you can't leave an animal in a closed car on a hot day; people who are so dim that they need a warning on their curling iron stating not to use it while they are in the tub; people who are so ignorant that they have to be told that their hot coffee is, in fact, hot and might burn them if they don't give it a second.... Well, we give those same exact people guns and expect them to behave reasonably and responsibly.
In 2001, we were devastated by the loss of 2,977 people in the attacks on 9/11. That same year at least 2,926 children died from gun related deaths. CHILDREN. Yet we avenge only one of these atrocities. We proudly wage the war against terrorism to avenge a single day, yet we sit idly while every year we lose thousands of our children right here in our homes IN OUR HOMES.
Why? Because we don't want to get into politics? Because we're scared we'll sound weak or vulnerable? Or worse? That we will be weak or vulnerable? Well let me tell you something. I don't own a gun. I never will. But if anyone ever tries to hurt one of my kids, they will be met with a rage so fearsome that no gun - no force for that matter - would stop it. That's why I write this. I don't want an innocent play date to end up tragically. I'm not going to let my kids get hurt. I, for one, am standing up and saying: NO MORE. Not even one more.
-kec
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I have read tons of articles like THIS
and this- In terms of accidental fatalities, American children younger than 15 are nine times more likely to die by a gun accident than those in the rest of the developed world.
and this - Accidental gun deaths are under-counted
But don't listen to just me - look for yourself. Don't rely on FOX or the NRA, or even Everytown.org. They all have their bend. So just look at the numbers - look on the CDC, state records, hospital stats. And if you find yourself in silent agreement, please stand with me and start speaking up. I don't want those numbers to grow larger. Not even by one.
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