45King: Are you sure about that 900,000 number? I just checked the Centers for Disease Control stats and according to them, the total number of deaths in the U.S. from ALL causes is about 2.3 million per annum. I find it hard to believe that 39% of those deaths were directly attributable to alcohol abuse.
To relate this to guns: The anti-gun lobby never tires of glomming together suicides, homicides and accidents to come up with a grand total of people killed "by" (not "with", of course, since that would remind people of the obvious fact that guns are just instruments) guns. Never mind that the statistical evidence from countries with lower rates of gun ownership but higher rates of suicide (e.g., Japan) strongly suggests that even waving a magic wand to make all guns disappear would have little long-term impact on the suicide rate.
To relate this to guns: The anti-gun lobby never tires of glomming together suicides, homicides and accidents to come up with a grand total of people killed "by" (not "with", of course, since that would remind people of the obvious fact that guns are just instruments) guns. Never mind that the statistical evidence from countries with lower rates of gun ownership but higher rates of suicide (e.g., Japan) strongly suggests that even waving a magic wand to make all guns disappear would have little long-term impact on the suicide rate.