That's A Lot

 Friends and constant readers from Oregon sent me an article a short while back. It was about a study done by the Oregon Health and Science University which suggested that it is the "Prevalence of firearms, not mental illness, driving gun deaths in U.S."

This, I confess, was not exactly news to me. 

However, the very scientific apples to apples comparison of forty other countries with based on the prevalence of mental health disorders and deaths from firearms. If you're reading this blog for the first time, you might be surprised to discover as those scientists in Oregon did that the firearm death rate was eleven times greater in the U.S. compared to the other nations while the prevalence of mental health disorders in the U.S. was similar. And would you believe that over the twenty years the study covered, that the firearm death rate in the U.S. had increased, whereas it declined among the other nations.

Cancer stopped being the leading cause death among children here in our country. It is now bullets. Again, if you've been hanging around here for any length of time, you know that being shot is now the biggest killer of children in the United States. Which begs the question, "So is everyone in the United States mentally ill?"

Well, no. We just happen to have this ridiculous armory held by private citizens. Half of the world's guns are owned and operated by American civilians. Not the army. Not the police. Just your average, Second Amendment loving man or woman on the street. Some of whom happen to be mentally ill. It was important for Kamala Harris to mention in her debate with that other guy that she is a gun owner, and so is her running mate. No one is suggesting that we take away all the guns. Limit them? That makes sense. If there are mentally ill people, how about we all agree that all these guns away from them? 

It's horrifying to me that with all the great ideas in the Constitution of the United States that we seem to be focused on that one thing: Guns. Anybody else want to get all bunged up about due process? Illegal search and seizure? What exactly is the third amendment? Can you guess without looking? Nobody seems to be that worried about it these days, but come this November, it could be a big deal again. 

Which is suppose is just one more ridiculous reason for the NRA-rads to insist on arming themselves to the teeth. 

Sleep tight, America.