This commentary was submitted by a teacher who requested anonymity. In his community, it is dangerous to say such things. He might become a target.
U.S. Gun Tributes Worse Than Hunger Games
In the fictional novel Hunger Games, 23 youths are tributed to death each year to supposedly keep the peace.
In the present day United States, however, the number of people being tributed to gun violence each year is much higher.
Let’s do the math:
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The United States has more than 33,000 gun related deaths each year.
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That’s 5x higher per capita than any other developed nation
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If the United States were like other developed nations, it would have 1/5th its gun-related deaths, that’s just 6,600 a year.
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So that’s 26,400 unnecessary gun related tributes each year to supposedly keep the peace in the United States today (or 72 per day), which is much worse than the mere 23 that was tributed a year in the fictional Hunger Games.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Related to this: we should stop paying attention to those who would divert the guns arguments to mental health issues. Mental health issues have no correlation to violent behavior nor do we have any greater incidence than other nations or societies.
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Let’s look at it a different way.
The United States has the 3rd largest population in the world.
China is #1 with more than 1.4 billion people vs, the United States with 324.5 million.
Nation Master ranks China #97th for violent crimes vs the U.S. that is ranked 18th. China is ranked 80th for intentional homicide rate vs the U.S. that’s ranked 7th in the world or four times more than China, a country that has more than four times to people the U.S. has. China doesn’t have a listing for violent gun deaths (murders by firearm) but it does have a listing for “Murders” and China is ranked 74th for murders per million people vs, the U.S. that’s ranked 43rd or four times more than China.
Nation Master ranks India #2 with more than 1.3 billion people but is ranked 105th for violent gun crimes vs the U.S. that’s ranked 1st in the world — 21 times more than India.
China is ruled by an authoritarian government and India is a (dysfunctional) parliamentary democracy.
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We must listen to the words of James Lawson!
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We should also understand that this is almost entirely about profit for the corporate manufacturers. We could add to the 30,000 plus killed here in the states, the untold thousands killed abroad, directly by the force of our military, or in reaction to the military interventions. Those reactions spread across Europe, Asia, and Africa. The military-industrial complex turns out tons of equipment annually. Only some of it is used at home, where we kill each other in what we believe is a quest for security–or a manifestation of macho.
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According to Global Research, the US has killed more than 20 million people in 37 “Victim Nations” Since World War II. Since World War II, that works out to about 75 people a day, every day or 27,547 annually since the end of the war in 1945.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-has-killed-more-than-20-million-people-in-37-victim-nations-since-world-war-ii/5492051
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THE U.S. DEFENSE INDUSTRY AND ARMS SALES… The three largest defense companies in the world are all United States companies. With a combined total revenue in 2001 of $100 billion and employing 400,000 people, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing are three powerhouses of American business. Their combined revenues account for 1% of the United States’ $10 trillion GDP. Each company is on each of the Fortune lists: America’s Most Admired Companies, Global Most Admired Companies, Fortune 500 and Global 500. Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing are also the three top arms-producing companies in the world…
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My Representative is Pete Visclosky [D-IN]. Merely ‘getting a vote’ about restricting assault weapons is not enough. Here is part of what was said at an Indivisible meeting that took place in NW Indiana:
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Rep. Visclosky addresses gun control legislation, Dreamers and budget disagreements at Indivisible NWI meeting
Lauren Cross lauren.cross@nwi.com, 219-933-3206 Apr 7, 2018 Updated 9 hrs ago
PORTAGE — U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Gary, was well-received Saturday at Indivisible NWI’s monthly meeting where he spoke candidly about the lack of congressional action on controversial topics such as gun control.
Kim Eldridge, vice president of Indivisible NWI, said the organization invited Visclosky as guest speaker because she believes he’s “a fighter for the people.”
“He listens to us,” Eldridge said.
Indivisible NWI — a grassroots, all-volunteer citizens’ group in Northwest Indiana’s 1st Congressional District — aims to promote public engagement and voter registration, she said.
Speaking to about 30 people at the Iron Workers Local 395 in Portage, Visclosky drew lighthearted laughter from the crowd when someone asked if he would consider supporting term limits, having served Indiana’s 1st Congressional District since 1985.
But the conversation turned serious when the topic transitioned to school shootings and the desire by many for stricter gun laws at the federal and state levels in the wake of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Patt Grey, charter member of Indivisible NWI and resident of Valparaiso, asked Visclosky why Congress has taken little action on key issues despite a recent NPR national poll suggesting the majority of both parties want to see common sense gun restrictions and support giving legal status to DACA recipients, protecting thousands from deportation.
“Why can’t we get legislation out of the House and the Senate?” Grey asked.
Visclosky answered, “When we had the Las Vegas shooting, I thought that was it. I mean, 500 people were shot by one person. And we did nothing. So I understand your frustration.”
Visclosky argued if Democrats controlled the House, they would, at the very least, act to vote on tougher restrictions on assault weapons.
“I would not presuppose or tell you how that vote would come out, but we’d have a vote,” he said. “There’s no vote now.”…
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It is just insanity to be doing the same things over and over and over and over ad nauseam. Doing the same things means inaction, lots of empty rhetoric, thoughts and prayers. Florida did enact some mild gun control laws which is huge for a red state like Florida but really does not get to the heart of the issue: the easy availability of guns, the semi-automatic rifles and high capacity magazines. Sadly, it’s not just the NRA and the gun manufacturers which promote lax gun laws. It’s also millions of ordinary Americans who worship guns and bullets and seem to think that the 2nd Amendment is handed down from God and that it guarantees them the right to buy almost any type of gun in massive quantities and that it’s some kind of unlimited right. Thus the red state politicians are not only catering to the NRA big bucks but also to these gun lovers.
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“It is just insanity to be doing the same things over and over and over and over ad nauseam.”
Have you been in the United States lately? 😆 Just joshing you. I agree with everything you wrote.
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“It is just insanity…”
No. It is on purpose.
Just like the school deform movement, just like endless “standardized” testing, containing the same Pineapple-like ??? (thereby rendering such “tests” tests of…nothing, but of torture, for kids, parents & teachers {but they are all “other people”}), just like the tax bill.
It is pure greed & demagoguery…all of it.
And we should have informed ourselves & stopped ALEC when it started. Everything now happening was years in the making (read Klein’s Shock Doctrine & McLean’s Democracy in Chains).
But we were all too busy working & raising families & just living our lives (&, perhaps, watching too much tv or sports or been tied up too much w/technology) to see what was happening & nip it in the bud.
And this is what ALEC & all the evil, greedy cabals (Kochs, Waltons, etc.) were counting on.
Keep fighting.
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ATF’s problem of ‘lost, stolen, or missing’ guns has gotten better, but it’s still a worry
WASHINGTON – Gun control is a never-ending argument in American politics, but it should not be an issue within U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Yet, here comes another report about loose controls leading to government firearms getting lost or being stolen.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives “generally has strong physical controls.” But a report by an internal watchdog also found record-keeping deficiencies, storage shortcomings and just plain sloppiness with guns.
The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General determined that the ATF, responsible for tracking stolen weapons, had “26 instances of lost, stolen, or missing firearms” between fiscal 2014 and 2017. Although that is not much compared with the organization’s more than 35,500 firearms, stun guns and silencers, it is disturbing, particularly because one of the stolen guns was later used in a crime….
Audits going back 16 years also identified ATF “control weaknesses over its ammunition inventories.” The agency developed better record-keeping in 2002, yet a 2008 report found that the “ATF failed to enforce the requirement to perform annual ammunition inventories and maintain accurate and complete ammunition inventory records.” Although the ATF’s monthly loss rate for firearms has decreased 55 percent since 2008, it remains slightly higher than in 2002.
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/ATF-s-problem-of-lost-stolen-or-missing-guns-12817465.php?utm_campaign=email-desktop&utm_source=CMS%20Sharing%20Button&utm_medium=social
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