Muscatine

First, you crudely imply I'm wrong.  

Then you imply I'm right by saying what I said proves your case.

Really?   You do get tangled.

It's another case of not letting the evidence get in the way of you conclusion.

        by        AWR Hawkins6 Jan 2013

According to the federal government, the number of people killed in automobile-related deaths annually is approximately three times higher than the number of people killed by all gun-related deaths combined -- handgun, shotgun, and rifle.

Yet there is, to my knowledge, no concerted effort to ban automobiles.

In a post on Jan. 3, I pointed out that FBI crime statistics show more people are consistently killed each year with hammers and clubs than with rifles. This information was pertinent because Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is planning to push legislation to ban several classes of rifles as we speak. Here is the link to her legislation.

For this post, I will be adding the number of rifle-related deaths with the number of deaths in which handguns and shotguns were used as well. This is pertinent because Feinstein's legislation includes a ban on many of the most popular handguns in the United States.

I will contrast the total number of gun deaths per year with another number -- the total number of people killed each year in automobile-related deaths.

After all, if the Democrats' real concern is safety, wouldn't you assume they'd like to know what poses the greatest threat to human life?

According to the FBI, the total number of gun deaths for 2005 was 10,158, for 2006 it was 10,225, and for 2007 it was 10,129. These numbers fluctuate a little, dropping from time to time. For example, in 2010 the total number of gun related deaths was 8,775 and in 2011 it was 8,583.

These numbers can seem high. And snatched out of thin air by gun-grabbers, these numbers seem to represent death on an unbelievable scale. But when compared with other types of death -- like car accidents, and/or the reckless and intentionally-fatal uses of an automobile -- the gun death numbers literally pale in comparison

For example, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the total number of deaths related to automobiles in 2009 was 34,485. In other words, more people died via automobiles in 2009 alone than died in gun-related deaths for the years 2005, 2006, and 2007 combined.

Moreover, according to the CDC, more people died from falls in 2009 alone than died in gun-related deaths for the years 2009, 2010, and most of 2011 combined. (Total number of deaths via falls in 2009 was 24,792.)

The bottom line: Driving down the interstate and climbing rocks and ladders is exceedingly dangerous when compared with owning and using handguns, shotguns, and rifles.

Of course, if you want to talk about numbers orders of magnitude above firearm or auto deaths:

ANNUAL ABORTION STATISTICS

• In 2008, approximately 1.21 million abortions took place in the U.S., down from an estimated 1.29 million in 2002, 1.31 million in 2000 and 1.36 million in 1996. From 1973 through 2008, nearly 50 million legal abortions have occurred in the U.S. (AGI).
• In 2009, the highest number of reported abortions occurred in New York  (119,996), Florida  (81,918) and Texas  (77,630); the fewest occurred in Wyoming  (≤20), South Dakota  (769) and North Dakota  (1,290) (CDC).
• The 2009 abortion ratios by state ranged from a low of 57 abortions per 1,000 live births in Mississippi  (Wyoming  had too few abortions for reliable tabulation) to a high of 713 abortions per 1,000 live births in NYC  (CDC).
• The annual number of legal induced abortions in the United States doubled between 1973 and 1979, and peaked in 1990. There was a slow but steady decline through the 1990's. Overall, the number of annual abortions decreased by 6% between 2000 and 2009, with temporary spikes in 2002 and 2006 (CDC).
• The US abortion rate is similar to those of Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden but higher than those of other Western European countries (NAF).
• In 1998, the last year for which estimates were made, more than 23% of legal induced abortions were performed in California  (CDC).
• In 2005, the abortion rate in the United States was higher than recent rates reported for Canada and Western European countries and lower than rates reported for China, Cuba, the majority of Eastern European countries, and certain Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union (CDC).
• Nearly half of pregnancies among American women are unintended; about 4 in 10 of these are terminated by abortion. Twenty-two percent of all U.S. pregnancies end in abortion. (AGI).