The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut was a heart-wrenching tragedy. Yet that tragedy will only be compounded if headline-addicted politicians use it to malign millions of law abiding gun owners and/or limit citizen's Second Amendment rights. Consider the data.
"
More people died via automobiles in 2009 alone [34,485 deaths]
than died in gun-related deaths for the years 2005 [10,158],
2006 [10,225],
and 2007 [10,129]
combined,"
writes Awr Hawkins at Breitbart, citing government data. And "
more people died from falls in 2009 alone [24,792 deaths] than died from gun-related deaths for the years 2009, 2010, and most of 2011 combined. Driving down the interstate and climbing rocks and ladders is exceedingly dangerous when compared with owning and using handguns, shotguns, and rifles."
There are "
around 300 million guns in the United States and at least one gun in about 45% of all households," write Nick Gillespie and Amanda Winkler. "
Yet the rate of gun-related crime continues to drop."
Gillespie and Winkler put together this
5 Facts About Guns, Schools, and Violence that everyone — especially federal and state legislators — should know:
