Here is the thing; people die every year from what should be harmless activities like eating food because of contamination. We see recalls all the time. People die from swimming pool accidents, people die from being struck by lightning while playing golf. But golf clubs and swimming poo.ls are not designed to kill; and those deaths are largely MORE preventable than our record with gun deaths, so long as we have so many guns in our population.
In large part that is because we design guns to be more lethal, while we design other things, like automobiles to reduce fatalities and injuries. We routinely try to make children's toys, household products and appliances, even our pharmaceuticals, our beauty and hygiene products, and our food supply (well - most of us do, but not Republicans and Libertarians who resist regulation and inspection).
We do the opposite with firearms and ammunition; the trend is consistently to make them more lethal, to make products that do more damage.
A report in Business Insider now predicts that nationally gun deaths will exceed all automobile deaths in 2015.
REPORT: Deaths From Guns To Exceed Deaths By Traffic Accidents In 2015
By 2015 more people will be killed by guns than by traffic accidents, according to a startling chart compiled by Bloomberg Government's Alex Tribou.Motor vehicle deaths have declined 22 percent since 2005 while gun fatalities — including homicide, suicide and accidents — have steadily risen from a low point in 2000.
The decline of traffic accident fatalities — which coincides with deliberate moves to cut back on drunk driving, increase seatbelt use and enforce car safety standards — and the increase in gun fatalities will lead to a massive change in 2015.
At the current rates, gun deaths should hit around 33,000 annually in 2015 while traffic fatalities should decrease to around 32,000, according to Bloomberg estimates.
Gun fatalities and traffic fatalities are among the major non-medical causes of death in the United States.
Here's the chart:
There are already ten states where gun deaths exceed automobile deaths. From Slate:
We know that there is one, and only one solution that prevents gun deaths, and that is fewer guns. There are direct correlations to gun ownership and gun violence; the two go together. We have reduced auto deaths, because we made the decision to do so. We can do the same thing with firearms deaths and injuries.
All that is required of us is the decision to do so, and the determination to follow through with that decision. Most of the country, and overwhelming majority support that decision; I guess if they are unwilling to join us in making the same kind of progress with firearms that we have made with other things, we will have to just proceed without the voluntary participation of the right wing gun nuts.
