By Tanya (a Secular Jurist author; author of the blog Illuminate By Tanya; an author of the blog League Of Bloggers)
If you still think Islamic terrorists pose one of the gravest threats to Americans, it’s because you haven’t seen the stats on gun violence. BillMoyers.com, as well as a small number of other high quality news organizations (including The Guardian) fill in the gaps left by many bigger news providers to give us a true picture of who presents the biggest threat.
In the wake of the massacre committed by Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old white man accused of having gunned down nine people at a black South Carolina church last week, it’s as important as ever to understand the sources of violence. To truly protect it’s people, the U.S. government must focus it’s attention on true threats – American extremists, be they “lone wolf” types, or those part of larger groups; racists, including racist police officers; and individuals who tote around (or in the case of children, simply find) loaded weapons.
“Toddler shootings range from the two year old who killed his mother in a Wal-Mart in Idaho with the gun she was packing in her purse as 2014 ended to the three year old who discovered a gun in a purse in an Albuquerque motel room in February and wounded his father and pregnant mother with a single shot. Such a list for this year would have to include the Florida two year old who found his father’s gun in the family car and killed himself with it in January, the three year old who picked up an unattended gun and killed a one year old in a Cleveland home in April, etc…”
“Toddler killings have been commonplace enough in these pistol-packin’ years that they now significantly outpace terror killings in the US.”
“The Washington Post recently began compiling a database of “every fatal shooting by police” in the US in 2015 (deaths by Taser not included). Their figure so far: at least 385 for the first five months of 2015 or approximately.”
“A Guardian study adds this detail: ‘Black Americans are more than twice as likely to be unarmed when killed during encounters with police as white people.’”
For more solid reporting on gun deaths in America, go to BillMoyers.com.
The Secular Jurist 