"We have 32 people being murdered by guns every day in this country," said Michael Wolkowitz, a board member of the Brady Center, which lobbies for tighter gun restrictions. "If peanut butter or pistachio nuts or spinach killed that number of people once in one day, they'd be pulled by the [Food and Drug Administration]." [link]
Ok, Mr. Wolkowitz, let's look at your "logic" in two parts. Part I: If there are 32 murders a day that comes to the unfortunate total of 11,680 people a year murdered by guns in the United States. Unfortunately murderers are criminals and by definition criminals will not follow the laws. They will find a way around any and all gun control regulations, as they do already. So that statistic is irrelevant.
Let's look at the the second part of your statement. Part II: I am assuming that by using the word "pulled" you mean banned, regulated, restricted, etc...such as you would like to see with firearms. Well we can look at other things that cause more than 11680 deaths per year in the United States and see how hard they are to come by.
Wait a minute, how about if I can show you something that is responsible for roughly 225,000 deaths per year, but when I pick up my phone book is far more prevalent than gun stores, firearms, or sporting goods in the yellow pages. How about physicians! Yes believe it or not physicians and the health care establishment as a whole are the third leading leading cause of death in the United States behind cancer and heart disease. [source]
Yet I can go see a doctor anytime I want to. How come they are still allowed to practice? Why aren't they being "pulled" by a government agency? Go spread your lies and your untruths elsewhere.
As for me, I have a cough and a sniffle, but for some reason I think I will head to the range now instead of the doctor...
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
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2 comments:
Something you missed in this analogy is the fact that medicine and doctors ARE as highly regulated as guns are - and have been increasingly for a long time.
The important analogy is that, in spite of all this regulation and the "laws," more and more people are dying or have their lives altered unfavorably by the medical system!
The regulations and "laws" do not stop bad people from being bad, or doing bad things. And they most certainly cannot prevent these bad people from harming others... at best giving society some way to prosecute the bad guys afterward - and seldom even that - whether their weapon of choice is a gun or a scalpel.
The bottom line is that government cannot begin to protect us. Each individual must be responsible for themselves and their dependents, whether it is in choosing a self defense tool or a doctor.
What about the nearly 44000 deaths per year from motor vehicle accidents in the US, or the 3500 deaths from drowning? Are we going to ban cars and water?
Oh, and that 11500 number is off by an order of magnitude. The average annual firearms death rate is ~1150, or 3.2/day, and not 32 per day.
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