Stuff

I just want to spend a little time today writing about things I think about. It has been just over a year since 20 children and 6 adults were killed in Newtown. What has changed since then? You might think that after a tragedy like that (it was a tragedy) we would do whatever was necessary to protect our children at their schools. Gun control, armed police officers, metal detectors, locked doors, something, anything, everything possible. According to media reports in the year since Newtown 11,437 people have been killed by guns. This includes homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths. The estimate of the total number is actually 33,173 using estimates from the Center for Disease Control. The last year we have CDC records available for is 2010. The total deaths that year from guns was 31,672 a number that included 2,694 children or teens. Since Newtown there have been 26 school shootings. The following statistics may explain why we have managed to do nothing since Newtown.

Number of firearms in the United States: 310,000,000

Number of guns per person: about one

Countries with more guns per person: None

Country in second place: Yemen with about 11 guns for every 20 citizens

Number of licensed firearm dealers in the United States: 134,997

Number of grocery stores in the United States: 37,053

Total money spent by the National Rifle Association in 2011: $231,071,589

Total spent by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the largest gun control organization: $2,844,489

Percentage of Americans that in March 2013 supported an assault weapons ban 57%, and in December 2013 48%

Percentage of Americans that in March 2013 supported background checks for all gun purchases 91%, and in December 2013 77%.

Since Newtown 114 bills were signed into law by states. In 22 states new laws were created to curb gun violence. In 29 states new laws were enacted making it easier for people to own guns, carry guns in public and to make it more difficult for the government to track guns. Yes the total of the two is 51 however some states did both things and some states did nothing.

You would wonder since it appears the majority of Americans support a universal background checks why that wouldn't happen. You consistently hear the representatives in Washington claiming that the majority of Americans are for one thing or another and they should get what they want. A CBS News survey in 2009 showed that 64% of Americans say the government should guarantee health insurance for all Americans. Yet the Affordable Care Act does not accomplish this. It appears for the most part to accomplish very little at times depending on how cooperative the government is at the state level. Why is it a problem for every American to have health insurance? What is wrong with that? I understand the Tea Party and many conservative Republicans do not like the Affordable Care Act. Where and what is their alternative proposal? At some point don't you have to stop being against everything and start being for something? You want lower taxes but you refuse to cut government spending while you complain about the federal budget deficit. You want a free market while you provide tax breaks and subsidies to large corporations and banks.

So, in my opinion it doesn't matter what the majority of Americans want because the folks with the money buy the perks they want from the government. They write changes in the tax code and have representatives or senators present them as part of a bill. They get the benefit and then tell the rest of us that they are just following the law. It's got to be easy to do when you write them for your benefit.

Life will go on for those of us who don't end up on the wrong end of a gun. We will continue to have school shootings and too many citizens without health care. Children will go hungry, schools will lack needed resources while we build new weapons systems to protect us against enemies who can't defeat the ones we already have. The majority will say that something needs to be done while they choose to sit back and do nothing. You may now go back to watching TV and thinking everything will be ok.