This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Guns - The Real Terror Threat

On September 11, 2001, nineteen terrorists directed by Al Qaeda, an Islamic, non-state sponsored foreign terrorist organization, flew planes into targets in the Unites States killing more than 3,000 people. Six years earlier on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh, a domestic terrorist “sympathetic to the American militia movement,” bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people. Those two attacks were the most deadly incidents of terror since 1970, and account for roughly 90% of the total terrorist deaths (approximately 3,500) on American soil over the past 42 years. In response to these and other terrorist threats, the American people, through their government, and the allocation of tax and debt revenue, have spent – in just the last 12 years – about $2.2 trillion dollars. In our wisdom, $1.5 trillion of that total (not factoring in future interest, VA, and lost productivity costs) was spent fighting terrorism by means of conventional ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The remaining $700 billion has been spent largely on the Department of Homeland Security, which emerged shortly have the 9/11 attacks in 2002. As evidenced by the recent terrorist bombing in Boston, the threat of domestic terror remains real and significant. Americans living in an open society should remain concerned about such attacks, and devote assets to limiting inevitable future attacks. But, it should be noted that during this same 42 year period, according to a 2011 report issued by the Firearm and Injury Center at the University of Pennsylvania (I’ve added 5 years of gun deaths from 2008-2012 ), approximately 1,344,000 people have been killed by guns in America (32,000 annual homicides, suicides, accidental deaths). As large as that number is, add on 68,000 annual “non-fatal firearm injuries” (based on 2001-2011 CDC data) and you generate the incredible total of 4,200,000 people injured or killed by guns in America for the period 1970-2012. What has America’s reaction to this carnage been? What war have we declared on this incessant mayhem, which has, over decades, wounded and destroyed the lives of millions? And what about cost? Based on CDC estimates, the Huffington Post reports that “Combining the direct medical costs of treating fatal gun injuries with the economic damage of lost lives, firearms-related deaths cost the United States $37 billion in 2005.” Add in another $3.7 billion in costs for those merely injured by guns and you have a grand total of $41.7 billion gun-related costs to society for one year. There are not 42 years-worth of gun-related costs to plug into the equation, but multiply by 42 and you are certainly talking about $1 trillion+ in total costs to America over four decades. So, to review - $2.2 trillion spent (not including any pre 9/11 expenditures) on a “war against terrorism,” which has killed 3,500 people on American soil over 42 years, and how much money spent on what war against gun carnage, which has injured or killed 4,200,000 people on American soil over 42 years at a cost of over $1 trillion? Somehow, the feeble muttering of a “2nd Amendment Right” does not offer a sufficient answer to this question. And it begs reminding that “the Constitution is not a suicide pact,” though it would appear from our inaction vis a vis the real and unending threat to a peaceful America - death and injury by gun - that we are content for it to be just that.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?