Interesting Statistic--Outlaw Guns?

R

Ruger guy

New member
My wife and I drove past the Maryland State Police Barracks yesterday morning. There was an interesting sign posted.

Automobile Accidents

86 Killed
22 Alcohol Related
2118 DWI Arrests

This is January. What are these numbers going to be by the end of the year? I couldn't believe it. I'm going to call to confirm whether these are year to date or what. But this is way beyond the homicide rate. And not all homicides are committed with guns. I think the legislators need to take a closer look at the overall causes of deaths before adding more gunlaws. Dead is dead, regardless if by steering wheel or trigger. What lawyer out there is going to start the class action lawsuite against the car companies for producing a product that causes so many deaths? And what about alcohol? I don't want to start anything so rediculous but reality is reality. The cars and alcohol do exactly what they are designed to do just like the guns and cigarettes.

I'm sorry guy's, but I was left in awe. Just shaking my head. I guess I just don't understand something here.
 
Ruger Guy,
We tried outlawing alcohol once. It gave us organized crime and the first Federal gun laws.

I fear that that is next though. Maybe not prohibition again, but suits against brewers and distillers to pay the government for the costs of the carnage their products cause. Never mind that we've made significant strides in reducing alcohol related accidents and deaths. Believe it or not, drunk driving and alcohol related traffic accidents are down about 35% in the last 15 years since we started the DUI crackdown.

But I fear that public health concerns are not the real agenda behind the tobacco and gun lawsuits, it's a legal form of extortion, our politicians are in it for the money they can remove from the private to the public sector.

Jeff
 
Jeff,

I wasn't trying to suggest outlawing anything or sueing anyone. I guess I should have made my sarchasim clear.

I agree with you 100% about the stupid lawsuits against tabacco. It is extortion. I chose to smoke and although it was difficult, I chose to quit.

I was mearly trying to point out the absurdity relating to the fear of guns.

86 people killed in car accidents in the first month of the year in a very small state! And they want to take away our guns?
They want to sue the gun companies? How rediculous!!!!

How about some mandatory retraining and testing. How about snowy weather training. Rain training. Not tailgating training. Cell phone training. Soccer mom 4x4 suburban oversize station wagon training. These projectiles are much larger than a 9mm or 45acp.

I guess the point is for them to .......LEAVE US THE HECK ALONE!!!!!There's lots of other stuff to straighten out first.
 
This gives me an idea. I wonder how effective it would be on the average joe out there if there were billboards like this all over. Showing the deaths in ranking, including gun deaths. They would have to be updated on a regular basis. Would include death by medical malpractice etc. example

auto deaths 100,000
disease 95,000
malpractice 80,000
drowning in buckets 10,000
gun accidents 200

Might help to drive the point home that guns are not the problem.

Richard



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Richard

The debate is not about guns,
but rather who has the ultimate power to rule,
the People or Government.
RKBA!
 
Ruger guy,
I recognised the sarcasm, I just wish I could kid about it. It seems to me that once we identify a problem, drunk driving, domestic violence, gun violence etc. We can never solve it. Once the problem becomes an issue and gets an "advocacy" group pushing for it they seem to never accept a solution.

Your example of drunk driving is a good one. 15 or 16 years ago, people got rightly indignant about the carnage that drunk drivers caused on the highways. Laws were strengthened, additional money was made available to police agencies for enforcement and the rate started falling. Tremendous strides have been made in this area. But instead of waiting for the new laws and stricter enforcement to change our society (it already has, how many places have "happy hour" anymore) the "advocates" continue pushing for more and more restrictions. First we had federal pressure to raise the drinking age in all states to 21. Now we have pressure to lower the BAC for legal intoxication to .08. I don't want to debate the right or wrong of the specific measures, but to point out that "advocates" will continue to keep the pressure up until there are no freedoms left. And what will they do when we still have drunk driving deaths? I fear then they will go for total prohibition once again.

Now add greedy politicians to the mix and you get lawsuits against the brewers and distillers. Why, because they got away with it with tobacco, and the alcohol industry has deep pockets. Surely they can make the same public health case about alcohol that they did with tobacco. More money to buy votes with and you don't have to take the heat for raising taxes.

Now to address your comments about more drivers training etc. It's coming to a theater near you :) Here in Illinois we now have graduated drivers licenses. A 16 year old no longer has full driving privledges. You now have to certify that a person who wants a license has so much time behind the wheel in the company of a licensed driver over 21 before you can upgrade a learners permit to a license. And until you are 18 you have restrictions on how many passengers you can carry and even in some cases you may be restricted to daylight driving only.

Personally, I like to compare "assault weapons" to sports cars. I find that when you point out that excessive speed is the cause of more fatalities then guns or knives or almost anything but heart disease, and that only the police and the military have a legitimate need to drive faster then 65 miles an hour and we should ban muscle cars or restrict them to people who own a racetrack, the absurdity of this stuff really shows.


I guess the point I'm trying to make is that there are forces working to "straighten out" all of this stuff right now. It just doesn't get the publicity that the fight to disarm us does. I really fear that by the time those people who think they can take better care of us then we can are done, we'll all live in approved rubber padded rooms, drink only distilled water and eat vitamin enriched tofu, watch approved television, commute to our OSHA approved jobs in public transportation operated by approved drivers or better yet computers and live meaningful satisfied lives...NOT! :)

Bookkie, that is a great idea, perhaps all of the statistics could be published and broadcast monthly for comparison. I don't see how they could set the agenda for us if the truth was out there though so it probably won't happen.

Jeff
 
You may as well add Air travel to the list... Since the beginning of the year, more than 250 have died in commercial airline accidents... Geee... 31 days... Approx 8/day.

Please don't take this wrong. I spent some 6 hours last night following the events... Very sad!

My heart goes out to the families and passengers/crew of Alaska Air 261... It hit too close to home.
 
Good points. And good idea bookie. I think I shall undertake to make such a sign. Are your numbers accurate?
 
I absolutely love the idea of posting ALL the real numbers. It would be cost prohibitive to actually post on physical signs. But could we create a web site to publish this information? It could be linked off of all the other websites that everyone here is in some way involved with or makes contact with. 4000 members is a lot of people. Do not make a reference directly that we are promoting any particular spin on the numbers. Just the facts...maam :) We could get some real positive publicity from some major sources. Are we sure that there already insn't something like this out there? We may be able to just grab the numbers and update once per day.

People need to see the real numbers. Conciousness will follow. Sort of like smelling salts.
 
The old advertising and accounting addage of "Figures don't lie, but liars can figure" applies here. The statistics that aren't published are often more telling than those that are. You only have to refer to the Jan 2000 issue of the NRA Guardian to see how the Clinton administration has worked the crime numbers game to their favor (and, I might add, to the relative ignorance/indiference of the mass media). I, too, would love to see a running counter in Times Square of the deaths caused by our perverted sense of "Socially acceptable risks" like automobiles and air travel. Unfortunatley, I don't have enough faith in the masses to even understand what they're looking at, as all too many are only aware of the interpertation of the numbers that they're going to get from Rosie O'Communist or the sensational 11 PM news.

Tom


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Remember, no matter where you go, there you are!
 
I have a friend who's retired from a brewery, and at lunch everybody was allowed to drink a few beers until MADD got upset, and demanded they stop the program. The brewery management told them that if they could convince the employees, they would voluntarily stop the practice.A MADD lady came over to talk to the employees about drunk driving and plainly stated that 25% of all highway fatalities are caused by drunk driving. My friend raised his hand and asked the lady if the figure was correct. She replied yes, that her data comes from the DOT, and reflects compiled data from accross the nation. AJ (friend) replies: Hell, drunks aren't the problem, you need to get all those sober SOB's off the road. They're causing 75 % of the accidents!
 
Wait, I have the solution! More legislation!

"THEY" want to mandate trigger locks on all firearms to prevent them from ever being operated improperly.

By wit of the same LOGIC, to cure this drinking/auto problem thing, "THEY" should mandate breathalyzer ignition interlocks on all automobiles!

Simple? Or simple-mided? Only you can decide.


[This message has been edited by ZeusOne (edited February 02, 2000).]
 
Hmmm...interesting thread. Just wondering, how many of the rightously indignant RKBA advocates and anti-RKBA radicals have driven an automobile while legally impaired? I better stop right there. :)
 
Ruger guy I am a LEO and I know what you are saying. We worked a car wreck with three teenagers in the car last Wed., and it was gruesome. They were traveling at over 100 MPH when they left the roadway, the car flipped and came down on top of the unseat belted victim (T tops). More blood than just about any homicide scene, that I have worked. The 17 yr old was just as dead as if he had been killed by a gun instead of his drinking and driving best friend. Parents talk to your kids, have some input in their lives, know what they are doing and who they are with. I had to go to that childs home and tell his parents that their son was dead. Sometimes I hate this job...7th Fleet

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SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL POLICE, KEEP THEM INDEPENDENT.
 
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