Gun Deaths Since Newtown Now Surpass Number of Americans Killed in Iraq

[BainsBane]

Cross-posted from GD.

I found this quite a shocking fact. Despite the tragedy of foreign war, the true battle is at home, where deaths from gunshot wounds outpace war casualties. How do we end this war on American soil? What responsibility does each of us have to bring this to an end?

The number of gun deaths in the U.S. since the Newtown elementary school massacre has exceeded the total number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war.
According to a tally of gun deaths from Slate, the number of people killed since the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary is now 4,499. The number of U.S. armed forces killed during the Iraq war was 4,409, according to the Defense Department.

The Slate data comes from crowdsourcing and warns that it is “necessarily incomplete.” Authors of the tally call on readers to submit news stories to @GunDeaths.

This comparison of the five months since the tragedy that redefined the debate for further gun control in this country and the nine-year conflict the U.S. has recently ended is now being used by Americans United for Change, a progressive political group. Already, the group has targeted several Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, to support background checks, among other gun-control measures.

Republicans successfully stalled gun-control legislation, arguing that further measures would not prevent gun violence but merely stifle the Second Amendment rights of lawful Americans. But Democratic lawmakers and progressive groups have signaled that they will continue this fight.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/gun-deaths-since-newtown-now-surpass-number-of-americans-killed-in-iraq-20130530

[billh58]

1. The sick NRA mindset

that these are "acceptable numbers" and to be expected in a population of 300 million, is the main reason that we lead the world in gun madness and deaths.

The misinterpretation of the Second Amendment by a right-wing (and NRA purchased) SCOTUS, and those NRA cold-dead-hands gun fetishists who applaud their fractured decisions are among the other reasons for the willingness of a minority of Americans to accept this obscene state-of-affairs.

The good news is that the American people are waking up, and beginning to demand that politicians enact a return to sanity with regards to gun regulation and accountability. The momentum is building, and the resources to combat the NRA's evil influence are coalescing.

[BainsBane]

2. Now we have to get congress to follow suit.

Hopefully those who voted against background checks will pay the price at the ballot box.

[Pholus]

3. Interesting number when you extrapolate it a bit.

A while back I found two references that indicate that currently we annually IMPORT 38 times the ammo used in the peak year of the Iraq war in 2004. (http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2832429)

Add info from this link: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_small_arms_ammunition_is_produced_each_year_in_the_US

There we find two numbers (fraction of world ammo produced in the US, and total estimated world production) and combine them to estimate that 6 billion rounds per year produced in the US. That means that we produce ammo at 83 times the rate we used it in Iraq -- or 83 Iraq-war-years per year. Found another number here (http://business.highbeam.com/industry-reports/metal/small-arms-ammunition) that says 10% of US production is exported. So domestic production is about 75 Iraq-war-years per year. That means that annually the US creates or imports 103 years of Iraq-war-years ammo that are released in this country.

So, making some handwaving arguments here, not completely trusting the numbers yet but getting an order of magnitude feel...

1) Eight Iraq war years worth of production in a combat zone kill 4409 people (over 8 years at 1 war's worth per year).

2) 52 Iraq war years worth of production killed 4499 people (103 war's worth per year over 6 months).

Bullet per bullet, we run roughly 15% of the risk of a US military member in Iraq from gun owners in the U.S. I guess that probably tracks. Bullets are primarily used for target practice or hoarding from socialists here and are primarily used in cover fire there.

Needs refinement, but an interesting first thought.

[BainsBane]

4. I came across this

[BainsBane]

5. Interesting calculation

Thanks for the info.