In the wake of the recent senseless death of an 8 year
old with an Uzi automatic weapon at a gun club in Massachusetts, it's
critical that we as a nation recognize that this child's gun death was just one
of the 5 kids under 10 years old and 83 Americans total that died that day and
every day from gun violence. Clearly 8 year old Christopher Bizilj's
gun death was entirely preventable and a result of adult negligence and irresponsibility.
On the other hand it's hard to legislate common sense and we shouldn't need a
law that prevents 8 year olds from using machine guns. That said this tragic
death highlights a failed US gun policy that allows kids, criminals and
terrorists to access military style weapons and handguns without any reasonable
restrictions or even detection in 32 states where there isn't even a criminal
background check requirement for all gun sales. Hence the United States is the
gun violence capital of the world and here are the just a few of the startling
numbers.
5 Average number of child deaths in gun-related
accidents or suicide EVERY DAY
9 Number of kids under 19 years old killed by guns
EVERYDAY
32 Number of states in the US that allow ANYONE to
purchase firearms without an ID or criminal background check
40 Percent of gun
sales in the US occur without an ID or background check requirement
40 Percent of American households that contain both
children and guns
83 Average number of Americans killed by guns
EVERYDAY
1,260 Average
number of annual firearm homicides in the
European Union (pop 376 million)
10,821 Average
number of annual firearm homicides in the US (pop 282 million)
34,000 Average number of Americans killed by guns
EVERY YEAR
$33,000 Average medical cost (80% uninsured) of a gun
related death
$300,000 Average cost (80% uninsured) of a gun
related injury
70,000 Average number of gun-related injuries EVERY
YEAR
655,000 Number US service men and women killed
in all Foreign Wars combined
1,035,000 Number of gun deaths in the US over the
past 30 years
$4 million NRA contributions to George W. Bush's 2004
campaign
$18 million NRA contributions to Congressional
candidates in the last four election cycles
$40 million NRA promised contributions to John
McCain's 2008 Presidential campaign
$34 billion Annual
US medical and productivity costs of gun injuries and deaths
Isn't it time that we enact uniform national gun laws and
initiatives that promote and require gun safety and accountability on the part
of gun owners, clubs, dealers, manufactures and law enforcement rather than the
current gun policy, dictated by the special interest gun lobby, that allows
unrestricted access to all guns by all people including kids, criminal and
terrorists? If we did we could reduce the number of annual gun deaths and
injuries to a fraction without any undue hardship on law abiding gun owners
like myself.