Did I hear this right (source: Congresswoman Carolyn McCartthy)? One million Americans have been killed by guns in the last 42 years. If true, that number greatly exceeds all American war deads since 1866.
A Million Dead Americans
- Thread starter Rockslinger
- Start date
I assume that most or almost all auto crashes are accidents. Can we make the assumption that a million Americans were "accidentally" shot to death by guns? (Yes, yes I heard the argument that if we take away their guns, Americans will kill each with wet noodles.)
Americans die from many causes.
Yesterday CBS News reported that last year more members in US military died from suicide than in actual combat....
Yesterday CBS News reported that last year more members in US military died from suicide than in actual combat....
1,000,000 / 42 = ~24000 gun deaths per year. That probably isn't that far fetched especially when cities like Detroit had 2000+ murders in some years.
CTV NEWS showed an interview with Congresswoman McCarthy and she verbally mentioned the one million number starting from the gunshot death of Martin Luther King. Also, gun death(s) have touched her personal life as well. Are there any Americans who have never experienced any gun deaths among their relatives and friends?
Is abortion considered an official cause of death? Ok, let's not get into a debate about contraception.
Agree. Too often the discussion about gun deaths get muddied by people bringing up deaths by other means. Unless I "misheard" Congesswoman McCarthy, I find the one million number astounding. That is almost 4 times more dead Americans than were killed by enemy action in WW II.
Yes, I believe that we can all agree that murder is not a moral good.
However, murders and attempted murders are certainly not spread uniformly across the U.S. We all know where they are concentrated and that those involving firearms generally involve illegal firearms.
So do I since for 2004 the number of Murders committed by firearm was 11,624 and you know damn well that in 1890 there weren't 11,624 murders by firearm in the U.S.
Didn't all ILLEGAL firearms start life as LEGAL firearms? Or, are there basement factories that are turning out illegal firearms?
Not all by any matter of means.
Yes, but far, far more commonly smuggled cheaply made firearms.
Congresswoman McCarthy said her stats only go back as far as 1968. If 2004 was a typical year, then the cumulative number since 1968 would still be close to 500,000.
Ah, I see where the 1866 date comes from.
Still remember that is 11,625 out of over 308 million which works out to 0.003774 percent of the U.S. population is murdered by firearm.
Yes, I picked that date because it is post American Civil War where northern Virginia was a killing field.
