Over 30,000 Americans die each year from gun violence. Meanwhile, many gun rights advocates insist that they must be allowed to harbor personal arsenals in order to protect themselves (and presumably the rest of us) from some conquest by the police, the military, or even some UN sponsored brigade of jack-booted thugs with black helicopters. Or something. The gun deaths are real, while the threatened take-over exists only in their minds. They are asking us to ignore a real problem because of an imagined one. They have lost the ability to discern the real from the vividly imagined. They are insane.

“There’s no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.” “I don’t think loaded guns is the way to solve a problem that ought to be solved between people of good will, and anyone who would approve of this kind of demonstration must be out of their mind.” -- California Governor Ronald Reagan - May 2, 1967 Source: "When the Protesters Carried Guns" By James Bennet - NY Times - June 1, 2020 In America, more preschoolers are shot dead each year (82 in 2013) than police officers are in the line of duty (27 in 2013), according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI. Source: "A New Way to Tackle Gun Deaths" by Nicholas Kristof, NY Times - OCT. 3, 2015 785,000 refugees have been admitted to the United States since 9/11 and not one has been convicted of killing a person in a terrorist act in America. Source: "Hysteria About Refugees, but Blindness on Guns" by Nicholas Kristof, NY Times - DEC. 5, 2015

The evidence is overwhelming: More guns mean more deaths. In the United States, which has more guns in the hands of civilians than does any other developed country, gun-related deaths per 100,000 inhabitants vastly exceed the level in those countries. Meanwhile, countries such as Britain and Japan have small numbers of guns in private hands and very few gun-related deaths. Between 2001 and 2013, domestic gun violence killed more people in the United States than AIDS, illegal drug overdoses, wars and terrorism combined. Source: Small Arms Survey (guns per 100 people); United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (murder) 2007 data for guns per 100 people; U.S. murder data is for 2010 and latest available for other countries - Via NY TIMES - 12/29/2015

Read what others have said about this statement here. Use the section at the bottom of the screen to submit your own comment.
Comments	Contributor	Date Submitted
Many of those who argue that they must have guns to protect themselves from conquest by the military also scream the loudest when someone suggests cutting the military budget. So, let's give the military everything they need(except decent health care) and even some things they don't want or need, and then arm ourselves against them? I don't understand the logic in their argument.	Linda Denton	4/8/2013
Submit your comment below
	Contributor (optional) Location (optional)	Date Submitted 7/12/2025

Use your browsers BACK button to return to the Latest News list .