One of the most contentious political debates in 2016 is the fight over the second amendment and gun rights. Every political candidate has been asked to weigh in over the topic and candidates are literally spending millions of dollars over this one issue alone. Recently Hillary Clinton produced a new campaign video which inspired this article:
“How many people have to die before we actually act?”
Mrs. Clinton is absolutely right. How many people have to die before America stands together and takes action? Last year alone nearly 88,000 people died in America as a direct result of excess alcohol abuse: http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/alcohol-use.htm
In comparison only 33,000 Americans died last year from gun related violence, including terrorism: http://www.businessinsider.com/more-americans-have-die-from-gun-violence-than-terror-attacks-2015-10
These statistics are no anomaly. If you do your own research a quick online search will show you that alcohol kills nearly 3 times more Americans each year then guns. Still not convinced? Did you know that alcohol is the number 1 underlying cause/factor behind crime in the United States: https://ncadd.org/about-addiction/alcohol-drugs-and-crime
Similarly a study conducted by drug experts shows that alcohol alone causes more harm to society than heroine, cocaine and marijuana combined: http://anonhq.com/alcohol-still-legal/
So where is societies outrage? Where are all the millions of dollars in campaign contributions and television ads trying to save peoples lives from the dangers of alcohol? If people like Hillary Clinton are so concerned about saving American lives why does no one talk about this issue?
It might have something to do with the fact the alcohol tax reveue nets the Unted States government 9.6 billion dollars: http://www.statista.com/statistics/248952/revenues-from-alcohol-tax-and-forecast-in-the-us/
Where as firearm tax revenue only nets the government 123 million dollars: http://www.statisticbrain.com/firearm-industry-statistics/
So there you have it, morality in politics is quite literally bought. The more money something makes, the more its dangers can be ignored and swept under the rug. I am using alcohol as and example to show people how society can be brainwashed into following a false narrative by manipulative political tactics. America needs to open its eyes and wake up from the stupor. If you do not want to ban alcohol, but you support banning guns you have to seriously ask yourself why people feel so strongly about this in the first place? It is nothing more then misplaced morality instilled in society by corrupt and manipulative political campaigns.
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Yea, and I don’t see any laws requiring background checks to deny alcohol sales to people who are assholes when they drink. I also haven’t heard any requests for a national database or federal registry on who possesses or drinks alcohol.
Yeah, but I never saw a man armed with a bottle of gin wipe out a classroom full of young kids.
Yeah, instead its multiple men, with a bottles of gin, in cars, wiping out the kids, one head-on collision at a time.
Guns and alcohol are all problems that have to be dealt with… with a combination of laws, education, and mental health issues. It is a group effort and we have to start somewhere… unfortunately the media focuses on the talking heads…headlines….
Or 24 who died on a Church trip when a drunk driver hit their school bus head on in Carrollton, KY were not counted as school bus fatalities.
They have hit school buses and run into crowds killing children.
I bet you like alcohol. Orphaned at 4yrs of age by a drunk driver running into my parents. My dad left 5 kids, 11 brothers and sisters 62 nieces and nephews, my grandmother and how many friends? Served WW 2. And Korea and a drunk kills him. My father had guns and alot of them. I was in the USMC and never popped a cap on an asshole. Drunk hunters shooting the shit out if what evers there in front of them and give guns a bad name and nothing done to a 9.6 billion dll tax paying industry that kills 3 times that of guns. Weapons a meer 123 mllion. Consept: Gulf war, 149 us military deaths. 85,000 tons of bombs dropped. Can only estimate civilian casualties at 100,000 to 200,000 and ten years later still didnt have water in the capital. Now if you can imagine…… 58,000 killed in Viet Nam in a period from 1965 to 1973 and came to marching in the streets. 88,000 killed with alcohol and everyone is ready for a drink. Sporting events sponsored by alcohol, race car driving, hunting, fishing and god forgive religious events. 168. Billion dlls to kill 58 th military US and an estimated 664,000 civilians. Only 6 trillion to kill 4486 in irac another 2245 Afgan thats US troops lost. Think they will give civilian sufferage. More of a chance to die in Mx. On vacation by gun fire than in the U S and Mx recomended for vacation with 5 times more chance of death than Viet Nam.Better yet in a country with maxed out gun control.
Its not over democracy its natural resources and money. With liberty and justice for all. Ooops cant say that anymore. WTF…. WHERE THERES FEAR.
Yeah, but you seen many guys drink a bottle of gin driving a motor vehicle weapon killing more than a 1000 kids per year…yet, I dont see you banning alcohol…or vehicles…because you blame the driver for his or her mistake right? Not the law abiding citizens who had nothing to do with the mass shooting
GREENVILLE, SC—Insisting there is no way anyone else would be able to get ahold of the weapons in his home, local gun owner Kevin Williamson told reporters Thursday he always keeps his firearms securely locked away where only he can access them during a severe mental breakdown. “Owning firearms comes with serious responsibilities, which is why I store each of my guns in a locked safe,” said Williamson, who assured reporters that no one but him could open the tamper-proof steel box and access the firearms in the midst of an overwhelming period of emotional distress that engendered a blind, psychotic rage. “I keep the key on me at all times, so I’m the only person who can get to them [in the event that I suffer a full-scale psychological meltdown and channel my derangement into a violent, blood-soaked rampage]. No one but me is laying a hand on those guns.” Detailing the further precautionary measures he takes, Williamson told reporters he would have to retrieve the ammunition from a separate location should he ever need to use his guns to take out a wild, all-consuming fury on a crowd of innocent bystanders or his family.
http://www.theonion.com/article/responsible-gun-owner-keeps-firearms-safely-locked-51195
It sounds just like the law that they have in New York State.
Not only that, but you cannot leave a gun in a car trunk, even if it is a gun safe, if you leave the car. If you do, it is considered a felony that you will go to jail for 10 years. Ammo must be kept in a separate safe from any firearms…..I could go on for a week…
“In comparison only 33,000 Americans died last year from gun related violence, including terrorism”.
Only?
No one dsputes the harm caused by alcohol, but that does not justify the possesion and use of firearms by anyone.
I know this is 2 years old, but FFS people….can’t let this go.
You sir are wrong. And this is the absolute critical distinction: There is not one good reason for anyone to ever drink alcohol ever. Period.
Reasons to own a gun?
How about 60,000 of them? That’s the (Conservatively) estimated number of crimes in progress stopped by a gun used in self-defense. (NRA claims closer to 2.5 million, but there’s dispute over that figure, so we’ll keep it as low as possible). I personally know three women who have pulled guns on would-be rapists, and none of them filed a report…while one person drew a gun on a mugger and did file a report. Anecdotal, but my experience is that 75% of those who draw guns just walk away without reporting anything, so I tend to believe that number is somewhere between the two.
But let’s stay conservative here. 60,000 people per year saved by guns, compared to the roughly 3,000* non-gang-non-drug-related homicides.
That’s a 20:1 ratio, and that’s justification alone.
*3,000 estimated by removing:
-Suicides (Guns don’t cause them, as you can see by comparing US suicides to those of Australia or the UK who have effectively banned guns. Rate is the same, just people hang themselves instead.)
– Police shootings (If cops didn’t enforce stupid laws like personal drug consumption, there’d be no reason to view them as a target. They’re bringing it upon themselves.)
– Police-led shootings (Excluding unjustified ones. Again, you rob stores and attack people, you’ve got it coming. Unless you’re suggesting police don’t enforce any laws, then these are beside the point).
– Accidents (Because if we include accidents, guns drop down to about #30 on the list of things to worry about. That, and I support the full prosecution of anyone responsible for the wrongful death of another. Especially when children are involved. Execute that fool….and anyone who accidentally eats a bullet has proved evolution in action. Since we’re on the same page here, we take these out.)
– Self-defense (Because it’ll only weaken your argument if I include these, so let’s play fair)
And after all of that, we’re left with 11,000 homicides…but it’s estimated that 70-80% of these are the result of gang-violence.
That leaves between 2,000-3,000 people killed by direct evil/malevolence.
over 20,000 of these suicides… a sad statistic but one that needs to be considered nonetheless
The purpose of the article is to convince, or at least show the readers some statistics on things that lead to deaths. It is up to the reader to form their own opinion and research. The author was just wanting people to think, why do we spend more time focusing on one thing and not the other. Shouldnt they get equal attention???
Sure there is, it’s called the Second Amendment. It’s in that pesky little thing called the Constitution.
“Being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Here, I posted the link for you.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/second_amendment
Enjoy reading it!
Feeble article, with specious, cart before the horse, conclusion. Most any reasonably literate person knows alcohol is a primary killer, both for negative effects on health and in precipitating bad acts. That is why the U.S. actually changed the Constitution to try to stop it’s use. After a decade of creating “a nation of scofflaws” and underworld empires, the Constitution was changed again. It was a noble, but failed, experiment. Knowing alcohol was here to stay the US then laden it with taxes, to recoup some of the costs to society that alcohol consumption creates.
If members of Anonymous are serious about affecting positive change in the world (and I hope you are), you’re going to need to get your facts straight.
You state the facts are specious but you fail to state which facts are specious, nor do you cite sources that prove the facts are specious. Hence, your connect is nothing but empty rhetoric. I am interested in reading credible sources that substantiate your conclusion, if you would be so kind as to provide them.
Tax guns much higher so high purchasing drops. Tax Alcohol higher so high that drops. Simple solution.
Not really seeing you would then have a nationwide industry campaigning against it to their heads of state (and the last thing a politician wants to lose is supporters). Not to mention the longterm consequences of hindering the industry in regards to businesses, jobs, product quality and tax, so it has to more constructive.
I think we can agree that guns need to be taxed more but alcohol is already highly taxed. Its difficult to start up any business in the alcohol industry because of all the expenses, procedures and taxes they must go through in order to initiate as well as maintain it. I know for one there is little money to be made in beer making, people do it for the passion.
There are 2 fallacies with your statement.
Cigarettes are proven killers and the state and federal taxes that have been bestowed on them have had NO effect. Cigarette sales have dropped less than 2% nationwide, yet the increased cost of a pack of cigarettes is mostly due to taxation.
People enjoy alcohol. I personally only drink about 2 to 3 beers per year simply because I don’t like the taste of it, but no matter how much you tax it, if people want it, they’ll pay the prices.
Putting a high tax on everything solves nothing, it only takes money from other parts of the economy. Look what happened when the last administration raised taxes. VERY minimal growth. Compare it to what is happening with the economy now that tax cuts and reform have been enacted. The economy is taking off. I personally have benefited by the company being able to give its employees raises instead of giving it to the government to waste.
Excessive taxation does nothing but take the earners money and give it to those that waste it. After all, it didn’t come out of their pocket, so why should they care how they spend it? And you can bet they will do just like what happened in this last Omnibus bill. Democrats demanded over $600,000,000,000.00 in pet projects to get the money to rebuild our military that the last administration depleted.
Stepping off my soap box now….
Alcohol doesn’t murder children in schools. Is this serious?
LOL it just murders children in utero, in drunk driving accidents, in post partum depression, in rape, and pretty much every other negative action visited on children. Because Alcohol impairs judgement, and sometimes that impaired judgement leads to children being hurt or killed.
Tax the fuck out of it, and tax guns. They should pay for the burden they place on society.
Alcohol is already highly taxed nor is it innately dangerous like guns but it can be dangerous in the wrong hands. I think trying to compare the two is absurd because then you’re just focusing on all the negatives things relating to alcohol when its serves a far greater purpose. Weapons are designed to inflict suffering whereas alcohol is designed to bring pleasure which is does for billions of people, but when mishandled can also bring suffering.
Same shit with guns
So many ill informed Liberals, so little time to attempt to unindoctrinate.
You really should turn off CNN & MSNBC. Well ALL NBC stations really. The media is SUPPOSED to be the watchdog, but were Obama’s lapdog and actually colluded with Hillary to help her win in 2016.
CNN’s election night anchors even said, “we did everything we could do to help her win.” That is not only sad, but VERY bad for our Constitutional Republic.
I have literally hundreds more verifiable examples. Should I keep going?
Massive double standard… guns are used for self defense and have on countless occasions saved lives. They also bring people together when being used for target shooting and competitions. Are you seriously going to say that alcohol serves a greater purpose just because people like to get hammered, yet more people die because of it?
An excellent response that people tend to not to talk about or just like to ignore. “comparing the two is absurd”…yet they bring up the positives of Alcohol trying to make it the “better” alternative that brings more joy/pleasure (LOL,LOL)…but yet ignores these same/different positive affects of firearms that you just mentioned. Of course the protection firearms have provided isn’t talked about much nor just the sport, in it’s self, that involves millions of people
Seriously. Try to find a single good purpose of alcohol that can’t be achieved by some other means.
And it’s not like guns don’t make people happy — I’ve yet to find a single drunk person as happy as me hitting 10/10 clays. And the best part is, I get to remember doing it.
Again, it NOT alcohol or guns that is the problem, but the people who use them. Society needs to wake up to the real problem here in the US. It’s the people not wanting to obey the laws.
Playing devils advocate here but… So you want our government to benefit from the deaths caused by alcoholics and gun violence by placing even higher taxes? Im sorry but that makes no since. That makes the government benefit from others misfortunes. You all know the people who want guns will spend the money to get guns just like the people who want alcohol will spend the money to buy alcohol. Im sorry it just doesnt make since that the solution people have on these things will ultimately financially benefit our government and who benefits from the money increase? Our politicians and those who are already rich. Because they are most likely already involved in politics in one way shape or form. Not all rich people are this way. But unfortunately many are.
No, but alcohol murders children while they’re walking to school, or walking home from school, or riding the bus to and from school, or riding the bus to and from school trips, or playing, or riding in a car with their families. And alcohol murders children when they become young adults and binge drink at universities and colleges (see the many annual articles about this epidemic, especially at MIT). Or maybe it’s not the alcohol but the people who choose to abuse alcohol. Just like with guns. Hmmmm.
What an idiot, when was the last time you saw a bottle of alcohol drive a vehicle. It is the person driving the vehicle who is at fault.
When was the last time you saw a gun kill a person? Its the person pulling the trigger, idiot
But it murders them in school buses…
This is a really bad comparison. The person who wrote this lacks education. In order for this comparison to make sense, the number of people who own guns have to equal to number of people who owns cars. If you have 2 groups in comparison and one have a million people while the other has 10, you don’t want to quote the number of people killed but a ratio/percentage.
Second point I want to make is that while alcohol has the potential to kill others when a person drinks and drives, most of the deaths by alcohol is self inflicted.
Third point I want to make is how many of those killed by alcohol are school aged kids?
fourth point is there are many more sensible countries in the world who had long banned guns while in those same countries alcohol is not.
To be fair, while I agree that the majority of alcohol related deaths are self inflicted, the same can be said of firearm deaths. Of the deaths caused by firearms, about 2/3rds are suicides. Lumping them in is a common way to inflate the numbers.
you did read the stats. over 1/2…actually around 60% or more of gun related deaths are suicide (ah, that’s self inflicted) so 60% of 34,000 (around 20,0000 of the 34,000) is an interesting number to think about…so a bad comparison mentioning the “self inflicted” issue doesn’t go far
But what you say is all theoretical. Proportionate statistics is theoretical. The statistics if backed with reliable resources is more concrete truth than your argument. I see what you are saying but, still that doesnt change the fact that more deaths are caused by alcohol than guns regardless of whether or not it was self inflicted. Also how many gun deaths were caused by drunk people or even alcoholics in general? Has anyone done a study on the mental issues caused by excessive drinking? Im sorry but more attention needs to be focused on alcohol abuse than what it currently is.
I think its just a poor attempt by Hilary to divert attention away from guns and a rather tedious article by someone who evidently doesn’t understand the value and cultural richness of alcoholic beverages such as beer, whiskey, mead, wine, cider and even cocktails.
Guns are more essential to US culture than alcohol… it’s not like whiskey, beer, mead, cider, or wine created and held a revolution together to form a new country in the face of tyranny.
Something like that tends to stick pretty firmly into your culture.
Alcohol itself doesn’t kill people unless you drink copious amounts of it and choke on vomit or die from alcohol poisoning. Doing stupid shit whilst drunk eg drunk driving and other activities such as that. If you drink alcohol responsibly such as drinking in amounts that isn’t dangerous or not doing stupid shit whilst blindly drunk.
You can apply this line of reasoning to guns as well.
and we all remember how well prohibition worked, don’t we?
Alcohol abuse isn’t just drunk driving, So enough with the “alcohol didn’t go in a class room and kill children”. Teens and children die constantly from alcohol poisoning.
This is a great discussion. The people who advocate for making guns illegal and not alcohol are being intellectually dishonest.
If you live in a safe area you’re much more likely to be killed by a drunk driver then by a lunatic with a gun. In fact, more people are killed each year by drunk drivers than people murdered by people using a gun: about 10k to 8k respectively.
Some people say that making this comparison is like comparing apples to oranges. Not correct. The people that are killed by drunk drivers are no different then those that are killed by lunatics with a gun. Neither group wants to be dead and are dead as a result of someone miss using a legal product. Ask the 10,000 families if they would feel any different if their loved one was killed by someone using a gun versus a drunk driver.
The reason why you don’t hear the drum beat by liberal Elites to make alcohol illegal (to save lives) is because, quite simply, they’re fine with you giving up your rights to own guns but they’re not fine with them giving up their rights to drink. People killed by drunk drivers each year is an acceptable loss for them so they can enjoy their right to drink alcohol.
Consider also the damage that alcohol does to our society that does not result directly in death. How many families are broken due to alcohol abuse? How many domestic disturbance calls also involve alcohol? How many crimes are committed that include a element of alcohol use?
Generally speaking, the firearm community takes seriously the power that a firearm represents. Of the hundreds of millions of guns that are in the wild, the small fraction of them that do end up involved in a bad act is minutely small. Of the millions of gallons of alcohol that are consumed in a given week, I would like to see the number of unfavorable incidents that occur.