Why the NRA is more monstrous than you think

[DanTex]

52. Funny, I only see right-wingers talking about "culture war" when it comes to guns.

The Democrats mainly talk about our astronomical levels of gun violence and homicide. It's actually really odd that NRAers simply ignore the 10,000 lives lost to gun homicide and write the whole issue off as a "culture war". Ten thousand is a lot of lives. That's about the same as the total number of US lives lost in 9-11, Afghanistan, and Iraq combined. It's surely far more than the number of people we've killed with drone strikes. It's about the same as number of Americans who died every year during Vietnam.

Of course, that number greatly underestimates the total toll on society. There are also suicides, which, of course, the NRA will argue "don't count". And then there are non-fatal injuries, and other externalities caused by neighborhoods living in fear of gun violence. One study estimated the total dollar cost of gun violence at $100B annually. And yet, the NRAers simply dismiss the whole thing as a "culture war". Perplexing.

I must have responded "other causes" NRA talking point a thousand times by now, but since y'all keep ignoring it, here goes again. The US doesn't have a higher rate of violent crime than other advanced Democracies. It's only homicide where we stick out like a sore thumb. That's because other advanced Democracies don't have a gun violence problem. Crimes committed without guns are far less likely to result in someone being killed. Most gun homicides aren't of the pre-meditated variety that would be substituted with something like poisoning. They result from escalation of arguments or other non-homicide crimes. The lethality of the gun is the difference between life and death.

But you know all that because I've said it a thousand times. You choose to ignore the facts, and keep fighting some imaginary "culture war".