Today’s tragic shooting at Virginia Tech, which sadly left two dead, including one police officer, is their second gun violence attack, and a stark reminder of the 2007 Virginia Tech Massacre — the worst example of gun violence by a single gunman in America — which left 32 dead and another 25 wounded. Those are the physical numbers. The untold, countless, emotional damage is immeasurable.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has a few statistics on gun violence:
97,820 people are shot in American every year.
268 people are shot in America every day.
9,484 people are killed by someone with a gun every year in America.
Given the rate of population growth, and given the loosening of gun laws by those on the Right, these numbers will escalate.
Compare that to 200 gun-related deaths a year in Canada, our next-door neighbors to the north.
194 gun-related deaths in Germany, 60 in Spain, 39 in England and Wales, 35 in Australia, and 17 in Finland.
And yet, the NRA, the Tea Party, and a great many folks, mostly (but not all) on the Right, would have you believe that guns are good, guns save lives.
False.
Think about it.
(image courtesy of the Brady Campaign, used by permission.)