In the United States, there are more guns than there are people.
So far this year, more than 5,500 people have died as a result of gun violence, 244 of those children.
Statistically, another 10,000 Americans will die in a gun related incident by the end of 2018 – some will be accidental, some will be suicide and some will be as a result of mass shootings.
On Friday morning just before 8am, at Santa Fe High School in Texas, a number of students were sitting in their art class when a gunman opened fire.
Eights students and two teachers were senselessly murdered.
In order to fully comprehend the threat of gun violence in the United States in 2018, here are five shocking facts.
- Three of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern American history have occurred in the last eight months.
- It is more dangerous to be a school student than a deployed service member in 2018. You are twice as likely to be shot dead at school, than in active service.
- An American woman is shot dead by her partner every 16 hours.
- One in three children live in a home with a gun.
- In an average day, 20 American children are shot.
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I understand the principles the author is trying to convey and I fully agree.
What I do not agree with is hyperbolic statements like "It is more dangerous to be a school student than a deployed service member in 2018. You are twice as likely to be shot dead at school, than in active service"
This topic (and associated stats) originally appeared in The Washington Post in the US - and even they had to make an edit and say being on active military service is "50 times more likely to die than a child in a school shooting."
Look, I get you are coming from a good place - but you do not need to use selective stats to make a case, it is counter-productive in my view.
It is more dangerous to be a school student than a deployed service
member in 2018. You are twice as likely to be shot dead at school, than
in active service.
That is just breath-taking, it should be running on the front page of every major news outlet in the US, but it's been allowed to run so long, it's simply normal. Actually in some (not so) dark corners of the internet, there are people who hold the firm belief that gun control advocates/the gubmint orchestrate school shootings to disarm 'Muricans.
An American woman is shot dead by her partner every 16 hours.
That's an appropriate cadence for bedtime stories, not human lives.
In an average day, 20 American children are shot.
And then enter one of the most inhumane and financially ruinous health systems in the world.
The NRA, propping up domestic genocide since 1871.
They're...patriots?
"in some (not so) dark corners of the internet, there are people who hold the firm belief that gun control advocates/the gubmint orchestrate school shootings to disarm 'Muricans."
Ummm ... gun advocates in Australia said similar things about Port Arthur.
Why make that statement an admonition? It doesn't detract from what I've said, it's additive.
Just in case, I'm misreading your intent - 'Ummm' invokes the patronising font in disqus.
I thought you were giving the 'Americans are stupid' line, so I wanted to state that people in Australia say similar things to what you highlighted.