They do kill!

 Of all of the so called advanced nations in the world we stand alone, at the top of the heap in gun deaths. From the chart it is damned obvious where we are in weaponry. Where  are gun deaths most prevalent? The second chart indicates that if you can get out of our nation's capitol alive it might be deemed a miracle! Of course we have a lot of trough-feeders there too, aka elected representatives. One of the most powerful lobbies plies its trade there. Threatening, cajoling, pandering and paying off our esteemed (gutless) representatives. There is some irony in this situation as they are sometimes in the cross-hairs themselves...money will out!

Our forefathers were intelligent men trying to write an all encompassing document when they created the constitution. But, they wrote it nearly 250 years ago without prescience. If any of them could have foretold the invention of automatic weapons I believe the wording might have been a bit different.

Does anyone really believe that they thought we should lead the world in senseless killing?

Regulation does not mean that you can't own a gun! Criminals can't! Legally that is, but the equally obvious adjunct to that is, if caught with an illegal gun you get to spend time with your low-life friends in a better controlled atmosphere...jail!

Statistically, Switzerland has a much higher percentage of gun ownership than we do. But there death by gun numbers don't come close. Same stats show that poverty is the number one indicator for criminal gun use. Switzerland is more affluent than the ghettos of our major cities.

There now ten states in our nation where gun related deaths exceed death by automobile. And the automobile death rate has been in a steady decline. State regulation, licensing and mandatory instruction come with driving a car. And another powerful lobby...insurance.

Guns are stand-off weapons, no physical proximity required. They have a kill radius of over a mile. That's an indiscriminate area, where anyone inside can be killed. Poison and arson are also stand-off forms of murder, but they don't approach guns in either usage or kill area. So, if you can't obtain a big bomb and you don't want to "see the white's of their eyes" a gun is your weapon of choice.

We are no longer an agrarian nation where the population depends on hunting to feed the family. At our discordant, dysfunctional worst we don't go out the door shooting. Where and when does common sense ever join this discourse?