A Culture Soaked in Blood

Comment from the contributor:

From The New York Times --

Easy access to guns allows for the 283 million privately owned firearms in the United States, contributing to the 30,000 gun-related deaths per year. 12,000 of these deaths are homicides, 17,000 suicides, 800 accidental deaths, and 300 killed by the police (mostly in response to others armed with guns). 70,000 people a year are shot but are not killed, 48,000 by a criminal attack, 4,200 by failed suicide attempts, 15,000 in accidental shootings and 1,000 shot by the police. The death toll among children is 3,000 per year, while another 17,000 survive being shot. The frequency of gun violence in our nation has become engrained in our culture, which begs the question, why do we allow this to be so?