The first American kid killed by gunfire in 2013 was at 12:30AM last night

[MightyMopar]

New year in PA begins with 2 Philly homicides

The Associated Press
Posted: Tuesday, January 1, 2013, 8:38 AM

PHILADELPHIA - The new year in Philadelphia has begun with two homicides.

Philadelphia police tell media outlets the first happened around 12:30 a.m. when a 17-year-old boy was shot in the head after getting into an argument at a house party in West Philadelphia. Officers tell WPVI-TV two armed men were taken into custody a few blocks away, and a gun was found near the shooting scene.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20130101_ap_newyearinpabeginswith2phillyhomicides.html

We can't get 30 minutes into 2013 without a kid being killed by a gun! Thanks NRA/RBKA/ALEC!

[RKP5637]

1. And so we muddle into 2013 in the same fucken rut! n/t

[libodem]

2. Sadly we should keep a running tally

Especially the vet suicides. I the NRA folks should volunteer for the hotlines and talk people back off the edge, if they don't think GUNS ARE THE PROBLEM.

[MrsMatt]

8. someone already does

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html

[Berserker]

9. Don't tell me

Knives are the problem!
NO
Gravity is the problem!

2013’s deadly start: 1 dead, 1 missing
January 1, 2013
The new year started on a grim note before dawn today with a murder and a man’s apparent impulsive leap to his death into the Charles River off the Massachusetts Avenue bridge, while 2012 went out with a fatal wrong-way crash, officials said.

The first homicide of 2013 occurred at 2:30 a.m. when a man was stabbed to death at 48 Pratt St. in Allston, police said.

The house was surrounded by crime scene tape this morning, while homicide cops were on the scene.

About an hour after the fatal stabbing, in a bizarre incident on the Massachusetts Avenue bridge, a man leaped into the river, prompting a search that continued this afternoon.

[green for victory]

13. The Vet Suicides probably don't have a thing to do with ProzacŪ or other SSRI's but Time Magazine

thought it might be worth looking into...

America's Medicated Army
By Mark Thompson Thursday, June 05, 2008
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812055-1,00.html

"...So LeJeune visited a military doctor in Iraq, who, after a quick session, diagnosed depression. The doctor sent him back to war armed with the antidepressant Zoloft® and the antianxiety drug clonazepam®. "It's not easy for soldiers to admit the problems that they're having over there for a variety of reasons," LeJeune says. "If they do admit it, then the only solution given is pills."

[center][/center]

...When it comes to fighting wars, though, troops have historically been barred from using such drugs in combat. And soldiers — who are younger and healthier on average than the general population — have been prescreened for mental illnesses before enlisting.

The increase in the use of medication among U.S. troops suggests the heavy mental and psychological price being paid by soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pentagon surveys show that while all soldiers deployed to a war zone will feel stressed, 70% will manage to bounce back to normalcy. But about 20% will suffer from what the military calls "temporary stress injuries," and 10% will be afflicted with "stress illnesses."

At least 115 soldiers killed themselves last year, including 36 in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army said on May 29. That's the highest toll since it started keeping such records in 1980. Nearly 40% of Army suicide victims in 2006 and 2007 took psychotropic drugs — overwhelmingly, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac® and Zoloft®.
>>>>Much More>>>

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812055-1,00.html

[jberryhill]

3. Not so fast.....

http://www.cecildaily.com/news/local_news/article_570bb62c-5446-11e2-87dc-001a4bcf887a.html

Elkton girl struck by celebratory New Years Eve gunshot

A 10-year-old girl is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head after being hit by a bullet fired into the air just after midnight Tuesday, said Lt. Michael Holmes.

-----

[MightyMopar]

6. Hopefull this girl will survive after society spends over a million dollars to save her!

[Orrex]

11. Um.

What?

[MightyMopar]

15. Traumatic brain injuries are very expensive and taxpayers pick up the bill

The costs of TBI are staggering. Treating someone with TBI can cost, on average, anywhere from $85,000 to $3 million, not including what is lost by the victim's inability to work. Total costs to society are currently thought to be about $60 billion a year. The cost in terms of suffering on behalf of the victim and their family is inestimable.

http://neurology.about.com/od/Trauma/a/Traumatic-Brain-Injury.htm

[Orrex]

16. I understand the dollars and cents of it, thanks

Your tone was puzzling, though, because it seemed to be reducing her to a cost projection.

I gather that you may instead have been addressing the price of this idiotic "shoot in the air" tradition, but it honestly didn't strike me that way at first or second glance.

[Ter]

4. Well, we do have over 300 million people

I am in no way saying this was not a tragedy, but in that half hour, I'm sure many more died of cancer or some other disease or sickness. Hell, I'm sure 500 times that amount died in auto accidents in that half hour, especially at that time.

[MightyMopar]

7. Gun deaths now run about even with traffic accident deaths

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/gun-deaths-outpace-traffic-deaths-2015-report-article-1.1223721

Gun deaths are the leading cause of death among black teenagers!
http://www.blackyouthproject.com/2012/03/report-gun-homicide-is-the-leading-cause-of-death-among-black-teens/

[Scootaloo]

10. Well, if there were some people running around ramming malignant tumors into others...

It'd be a valid comparison.

[dsc]

14. Japan has well over 100 million people

and I can petty much guarantee that the first child to die in Japan of gun shot wounds in 2013 hasn't happened yet, much less having it happen at 1:30 in the morning. The United Kingdom has 80 million, I can pretty much guarantee that their first child to die of a gun shot hasn't happened yet, much less at 2:00 am.

[Brigid]

19. Gun deaths are completely preventable.

Big difference.

[Barack_America]

5. Just a few blocks from where I used to live.

Right where I campaigned for Obama in 2008. Possibly at the same house where a woman told me, as I finished my canvassing at dusk, "I thank you for coming here. You have my support. But it's starting to get dark and you need to get out of this neighborhood".

I can't tell you how much that interaction affected me.

[mokawanis]

12. The carnage continues apace

While Americans sit around and insist guns aren't the problem.

Screw the NRA and every single person who contributes to the bloodshed by supporting them.

[davidn3600]

17. For some reason so many people here think a gun is the only way to kill someone

I guess killing never happened before the invention of guns.

[Orrex]

18. I've never seen anyone suggest that a gun is the only way to kill someone

[Fumesucker]

20. Not at all, it's just one of the easier and less "personal" ways, you don't have to get close

And it only takes an ounce or three on the trigger to do it.