The macabre truth of gun control in the US is that toddlers kill more people than terrorists do

[applegrove]

The macabre truth of gun control in the US is that toddlers kill more people than terrorists do

by Lindy West at the Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/13/the-macabre-truth-of-gun-control-in-the-us-is-that-toddlers-kill-more-people-than-terrorists-do?CMP=share_btn_tw

"SNIP............



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In the US in 2015, more people were shot and killed by toddlers than by terrorists. In 2013, the New York Times reported on children shot by other children: “Children shot accidentally – usually by other children – are collateral casualties of the accessibility of guns in America, their deaths all the more devastating for being eminently preventable.”

And I’m supposed to believe that frightened Syrian refugees – or whomever becomes the next rightwing scapegoat du jour – are the real threat to my children? I’m supposed to be afraid of sharks? Heavy metal music? Violent video games? Horse meat in my hamburger patties? Teenagers pouring vodka up their butts?

States with more guns have more gun deaths. Keeping a gun in your house increases your chances of accidental death by shooting, but does not make you safer. A woman’s chance of being murdered by an abusive partner increases fivefold if the partner has access to a gun. “Good guys with guns” are a fantasy. How much longer will we keep participating in this great collective lie that deadly weapons keep us safe?

The accidental shooting of Jamie Gilt is the object lesson that my absurd nation deserves. When even supposed gun safety experts cannot keep themselves safe from their own toddlers, we should take that as an unequivocal reminder that guns are inherently dangerous. They are exploding projectile machines designed specifically for killing. And that’s not bleeding-heart hyperbole – it’s the explicit reason why many people are drawn to them. Cowboy games. Vigilante justice. Power.





..............SNIP"

[SunSeeker]

1. It's sickening.

[fullautohotdog]

2. I know people love their guns (or even luv their gunz)

but Jesus-tapdancing-Christ, people. Why can't people lock up their shit or just not leave them lying around with bullets in them? It's not exactly rocket surgery.

Sad-but-could-have-been-worse story time: Back in the early '80s, my uncle used to leave an old tube-fed .22 rifle in his truck. This tube-feeder had a tendency to get a single round stuck in the tube when unloaded. His 3-year-old daughter was playing with here 2-year-old sister in the truck one day, when the older one got down the rifle and pointed it at her sister's chest. The victim spent a month in the hospital and almost died (remember, a 2-year-old isn't much bigger than the woodchucks my uncle used it on). Rifle went in the burn barrel.

The moral of the story is: If you're going to own it (a topic for another day) lock it up away from your small children. A basic rifle safe is like $100 a Walmart, about half the cost of one of those "tacticool" plastic stocks they sell for AR-15s. A handgun lock box is the same as a pistol magazine.