Sensible Gun Safety

[Typical Lax Dad]

https://apple.news/ArYrCrm2SQDO-UrKmmf-SRA

Ah, the Surgeon General weighs in. I was waiting for his "I don't feel like staying in my lane" warning to be posted here. Where to begin?

A 2022 study by John Hopkins School of Medicine found medical malpractice deaths in the United States to be as high as 250k/year (9.5% of all deaths). Other studies put that number at closer to 400k. Legal prescription drugs cause ~150k deaths per year. These horrific numbers dwarf "gun violence" numbers (even including the suicide padded numbers). Perhaps the Surgeon General should issue a warning for his own house, the US Medical Industrial Complex, and get that dumpster fire doused. In related news,

TODAY IN THE USA: Approximately 40 homicides were committed. Of these, approximately were 27 committed via the criminal use of a firearm. ANNUAL FIGURES: Approximately 14,000 murders, with approximately 10,000 murders utilizing firearms. Individual weapon totals (approximate): 6,500 by handgun. 1,500 by knives/bladed instruments. 600 by body (hands, fists, feet). 400 by hammer/blunt instruments. 364 by all rifles. 200 by shotgun. The FBI data lists the balance as “not known”.

TODAY IN THE USA: Approximately 1,500 reported cases of Aggravated Assault were filed. ANNUAL FIGURES: Approximately 550,000 filed cases, with FBI estimating the actual figure is much higher, as approximately 40% of cases go unreported.

TODAY IN THE USA:
Approximately 1,700 home invasions with victim (owner/renter/guest) present inside home. ANNUAL FIGURES: Approximately 627,000.

TODAY IN THE USA:
Approximately 1,100 women were r*ped or sexually assaulted. ANNUAL FIGURES: Approximately 400,000.

TODAY IN THE USA:
Approximately 110 men and boys were r*ped or sexually assaulted. ANNUAL FIGURES: Approximately 40,000.

TODAY IN THE USA:
Approximately 20,000 calls were placed to domestic violence hotlines. Close to 7,000,000 annually.

TODAY IN THE USA:
Approximately 1,000 children went missing. And approximately 300 children ages 4-15 became sexually trafficked. ANNUAL FIGURES: 365,000 missing & 109,000 sexually trafficked.

TODAY IN THE USA:
Approximately 37* people were killed in drunk driving criminal violence incidents (aka “vehicular crashes”). Of these deaths caused by the criminal actions of the drunk drivers, approximately 14 were innocent vehicular homicide victims: pedestrians, motorists, passengers. ANNUAL FIGURES: 13,505* drunk driving deaths. 5,130 innocent victims. *Interesting aside: CDC defines children killed in drunk driving crimes as being aged 0-14 years old. Oddly, the same CDC expands the definition of children for the purposes of their “children killed by guns” statistic to include 15-19 year olds. Anyone else find that…odd? But I digress. In related news, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) didn’t blame a single “Assault Vehicle” for the criminal behavior of the driver who killed innocents.

TODAY IN THE USA:
Approximately 190 died of illegal Fentanyl overdoses (out of the 273 total overdose deaths today) supplied by criminal drug activity. ANNUAL FIGURES: 100,000 overdose deaths, 85% from illegal drugs, and 70% of that total from illegal Fentanyl. Estimates are that 90% of illegal Fentanyl in USA is manufactured in China, and crosses into USA via Southern border.

TODAY IN THE USA: Approximately 385 died of alcohol poisoning and alcohol related factors. ANNUAL FIGURES: Approximately140,000 deaths due to alcohol poisoning and alcohol related factors.

TODAY IN THE USA: Approximately 1,250 died of smoking related causes. Of these deaths, approximately 112 (including at least one infant 18 months or younger) were non-smoker victims of second hand smoke, including . ANNUAL FIGURES: Approximately 41,000 deaths due to second hand smoke, including 400 infants. One in five deaths in the US each year are caused by smoking. Note: Commercial tobacco products have been curated to contain chemicals which aid in the delivery of Nicotine, one of the most addictive substances on earth. These deadly to humans chemicals include Benzene, Toluene, Butane, Cadmium, Ammonia, and Hydrogen Cyanide. If a new company founded today released a new consumer product line (cigarettes, cigars, chew) that were constructed with the materials of the average cigarette/tobacco product on the market today, there would be a public outcry. The Surgeon General would be leading the charge. In the meantime, this dangerous public health scourge which costs taxpayers a quarter of a trillion dollars in health care costs and generates 12 billion dollars per year in Federal tax revenue has a few warnings on packaging. Mission accomplished!

TODAY IN THE USA: Obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and poor nutrition continued to ravage 40% of the nation’s population. Health costs and economic costs? Incalculable.

Note: Conflating suicide as “gun violence” is a disingenuous and purposely misleading policy based evidence making fib. America has lower suicide rates than heavily gun restricted nations including France, Switzerland, Hungary, Japan, Belgium, South Korea, Austria, Poland, India, Finland, among others. Should these nations and America count “rope violence” and “plastic bag violence” for hanging/suffocation/asphyxiation deaths? “Pill violence” and “Poison violence” suicides? “Gravity violence” suicides for bridge and building jumpers? “Knife and razor blade violence” suicides? Back in America, per the CDC, women use suffocation and pills/poison in 66% of suicides. For men, 43% of suicides are via suffocation and poison. Suicide is not a crime in America. When politicians and lobbying groups single out suicide by gun and lump it into the “Gun Violence” tally they are being patently disingenuous. Please note, anyone thinking I am being callous regarding the epidemic of suicide in this country, please save your breath. It is a sad and devastating public health crisis, and I doubt anyone here has not been affected directly or indirectly via family, friends, co-workers, classmates. Intervention, educational and physical mitigation strategies exist which focus on the potential gun utilization segment of those wishing to commit suicide, which is of course important as guns are very good at making a suicide attempt lethal. Access/storage strategies/equipment, and programs facilitating the temporarily turning in of guns at qualified locations for safe keeping are both encouraging and proven effective.

Too bad we don’t have our DA's, judges, and criminal courts focusing their energies upon intervention and punishment for the actual criminal perpetrators of violence, utilizing ANY means or instrument, and the public will become safer.

Hopefully the surgeon general can get back to processed sugars, high fructose corn syrup, and bad carbs. Those things are killing machines.

Just my .02

Those are problems too. Would you happen to know how those statistics compare to other first world nations?

No. I try to keep my focus on our country, as it is easy to get caught in the weeds on "compared to peer nations stuff". I only brought it up above relating to suicide as it seemed apt in terms of how rope violence, gravity violence etc. seem to be ignored.

Thanks

[WaffleTwineFaceoff]

I would not put too much weight on this Madison quote. While the quote is accurate, Madison and the second amendment is far more complex. To understand you might want to look at Paul Finkelman. A serious historian's look at the writing of the constitution and bill of rights. The 2nd is all about State militias!! It is not about slavery and it is not about individual gun rights for hunters.

Been busy, and thus just able to circle back to your post. I can assure you my dig into 2A meaning goes just a touch deeper than Madison's quote. Does it make any sense that the founders "accidentally, oops, whoopsie" wrote the Second of all the amendments as a collective militia based only right, while every other amendment was about individual rights? If yes, then that's the ultimate founding era head scratcher.

We can all go round and round all day on this, and ping pong scholarly "definitive proofs" back and forth (such as the 2A was passed for slavery protection angle you cite), and thus join the politicians, scholars, lawyers, courts, and lobbyists doing back bends and playing word games to "prove" the true and absolute meaning that their funding sources desire – in order to add their proofs to the raging and ongoing fray. I respect everyone's right to draw their own conclusions based on their own digs.

The books in my library on the subject, the articles I've read, videos I've watched, and the judicial opinions I've read (and I am no legal whiz) since I became keenly interested in this topic quite a long time ago have led to my conviction and confidence regarding the 2A beliefs which I have drawn. The "all about State militias only" angle just doesn't work for me no matter how hard whomever tries to defend that interpretation. Anyone for whom 2A individual right interpretations don't work – fair enough, roger that, you do you, and how about a glass of merlot?

Gotta love Ruth Bader Ginsberg referring to the 2A in profoundly clear individualist terms in Muscarello v. United States (1998) – a case involving a Federal criminal statute. To wit, Justice Ginsberg's analysis of the meaning of “carries a firearm”: Surely a most familiar meaning is, as the Constitution’s Second Amendment indicates, ‘wear, bear, or carry upon the person or in the clothing or in a pocket, for the purpose of being armed and ready for offensive or defensive action in a case of conflict with another person.’” Participation in a structured military organization or militia is nowhere to be found. There are hundreds of similarly intriguing anecdotal crumbs - from before 1792 until present day - which one can add to their own 2A scholarship stew as one draws their own conclusions.

The above Ruth nugget is from the video below which I've shared with a whole bunch of friends and family. It's been available on and off the internet, and gets reposted here and there when it disappears. Yes, it's more than 40 minutes long. No, you don't have to watch it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kXPvkH ... BhupZTCmUn

Anyways, I'm firmly an individual right 2A person, with the militia 100% intended as prefatory, not operative or restrictive. I came to this not just because of a Mason quote, or this video, or Ruth the rockstar. Ymmv, enjoy your own rabbit hole research on the subject, and I shall of course respect whatever beliefs you formulate as the result of your journey!

I reiterate my suggestion that anyone interested in understanding American gun culture in 2024 might enjoy the quick and breezy read of David Yamane's "Gun Curious". Jeff Bezos will have it to your door in 48 hours or less if you're so inclined.