US stats: you are 57x times more likely to die to a gun than to a terrorist (statistics, weapon)
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The latest defense by the far-right for their "guns for all - no questions asked" policy is to claim that since guns kill fewer people each year than knives and cars, guns aren't worth worrying about and we shouldn't change the laws to reduce gun deaths. Now, obviously there are some glaring flaws in their logic: crime is not the most common cause of death, so we shouldn't bother hunting down violent criminals, and drunk driving is not the most common cause of car crashes, so we should allow drunk driving. But let's instead go further down the rabbit hole of right-wing "logic" and see where it leads us.
Gun deaths by year - averages to about 8,815 people in the US per year
Rifles average 327 people killed per year; HOWEVER, over 1,000 deaths per year don't have the gun type stated, so this number could only go higher with more accurate data.
Deaths by terrorism per year since 1995 - averages to about 154 people in the US per year
So, you are over 57x more likely to die from a gun in the US than from a terrorist attack.
Despite this fact, more effort has been put into "stopping those scary brown foreigners who must all be terrorists" from the Trump administration - backed heavily by xenophobic right-wingers - than gun control, and we can't go a week without right-wing media trying to claim that scary foreigners are all terrorists, which are the gravest threat to our security. Bull. Even by right-wing logic - which is often nebulous at best - if guns "don't kill enough people to worry about," than surely terrorism is not worth worrying about, either.
Now, I'm obviously not calling for no immigration laws, no guns, or no gun laws, but I am reminding people of the facts. So, the next time some xenophobic right-winger you know starts spouting off about how those "scary foreign terrorists are gunna kill us all!" remind him that he is 57x more likely to die to one of his precious guns than to terrorism in the US.
The vast majority of gun deaths in the US are suicides, are they not?
The average white middle class American faces a murder-rate equal to that of the average Belgian. So.......these kinds of statistics are meaningless.
Terrorism is indiscriminate and affects more than just the people getting killed. It's like accepting 9/11 because more people died in car accidents that year. It's a ****ed up moral compass.
The vast majority of gun deaths in the US are suicides, are they not?
The average white middle class American faces a murder-rate equal to that of the average Belgian. So.......these kinds of statistics are meaningless.
Terrorism is indiscriminate and affects more than just the people getting killed. It's like accepting 9/11 because more people died in car accidents that year. It's a ****ed up moral compass.
...or because more people died from falling furniture--another fact.
Besides, contrary to what the OP's sour rant implies, immigration laws are enforced for reasons that have nothing to do with terrorism.
There is merit to what you are saying, but I've seen other liberal arguments that define gang shootings and any mass shooting as domestic terrorism to play up the most terrorists are domestic angle. If that same definition applies here you would still have a point, but the number would be much closer.
I would like consistency from argument to argument with terms.
Terrorism deaths are low despite the fact they have ready access to guns. Why? Because they have been able to eliminate most of these threats before they have been able to carry out their actions.
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