Bill Boyne: Guns should be restricted to soldiers, police officers
The issue of how to deal with gun-related violence in this country continues to divide Americans along political and ideaological lines. This is one of two differing perspectives on the subject.
A recent report by the U.S. Justice department indicates that Americans were victimized by gun violence in 2005 at a greater rate than in the previous year, after a long decline.
The report indicates there were two violent gun crimes in the U.S. for every 1,000 individuals, compared to 1.4 in 2004. There were 2.6 robberies for every 1,000 individuals, compared with 2.1 the year before.
At the same time, the New York Times published an article that should be considered in the light of the report on gun violence. It lists the volume of small arms produced throughout the world and -- to no one's surprise -- the United States is by far the largest producer.
According to the Times, the U.S. exports $533 million worth of small arms every year. That is more than twice as many weapons as produced by Italy, the second largest producer.
The newspaper also reports that 1,000 people are killed every day worldwide by small arms fire -- 365,000 people per year. Of those killed, 56 percent are victims of homicides, 25 percent die in war, 14 percent are suicides and 5 percent die in firearms accidents. In addition, three people are wounded for every person killed. That would indicate a total of 1,460,000 people killed and wounded annually with small weapons throughout the world..."
After reading this bilgewater, I stopped long enough to wipe the tears of laughter from my still twinkling orbs, to have another glance to see if Miss Boyne included statistics that identify WHO is creating all of this mayhem with firearms.
Nary a peep.
Law abiding gun owners wound, murder, assault, and steal from precisely how many of the world's citizens?
Take your time. I'll wait until hell freezes over for an answer.
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