Gangs, Drugs and Suicides, Not Guns, are the Problem

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that of the approximate 31,224 deaths from guns from all intents in 2007 (the latest figures it provides), 17,352 of them were suicides and 12,632 of them were homicides. When adding law enforcement, the homicide rate was at 12,983.

Add to that the 889 unintentional or accidental gun deaths, along with the undetermined, and a clear picture of deaths from guns is painted.

Those numbers have improved since 1996, where 34,040 people died from guns from all intents.

Taking into account as you go from year to year the number of deaths fluctuate, let's look at all murders in 2012 in 12 metropolitan areas in America, which the vast majority are related to gangs, and the majority used guns as the weapon of choice.

From Fronpagemag:

Chicago’s murder numbers have hit 500. Baltimore’s murder toll has passed 200. In Philly, it’s up to 324, the highest since 2007. In Detroit, it’s approaching 400, another record. In New Orleans, it’s almost at 200. New York City is down to 414 from 508. In Los Angeles, it’s over 500. In St. Louis it’s 113 and 130 in Oakland.  It’s 121 in Memphis and 76 in Birmingham.

The total number of murders in  these 12 cities combined is about 3,200. That's almost 25 percent of all murders in the U.S. Most of these are murders between gang members or by gang members.

Added together, the data say this. Depending on the specific year, well over 50 percent of all firearm deaths are suicides; accidental gun deaths at about 900, and rounded off, homicides using guns are about 12,000 a year, give or take. The vast majority of those homicides are directly related to gangs and drugs in urban areas.

So next time gun control fanatics tell you 30,000 people a year are murdered by guns, let them know it's closer to 12,000, with the majority of them happening between gang members.

If some try to get cute by arguing people wouldn't commit suicide if they didn't have a gun, it's easy enough to see that many other suicides are successfully accomplished in a variety of ways. People coming to the place of wanting to seriously kill themselves aren't overly concerned about the means they take to do it.

Add drugs to the mix and you have a lethal combination, whether it's in regard to using guns to commit suicide or murder.
As you can see, there are very few deaths from guns in the general population of the United States. While those that are are highly visible and tragic, it doesn't take away from the fact they are few and far between.

To me the only answer is to have people armed in areas where crowds gather in order to quickly respond to the nuts that are out to kill people.

We don't live in a perfect world, and we will never be able to perfectly protect people. To attempt to is an excuse to expand the power and totalitarian instinct of government to dangerous levels. We can't allow that to happen.

For further study on the CDC concerning deaths in general, and firearms deaths in particular, go to this link.

When you get there you'll see the numbers one and two near the top. You can click the circles in No. 1 to decide which data you want to search for. And in the second area you have options as the to method of death. Just click on firearms and scroll down a little until it says submit request.