Guns Kill

   That's the purpose. That's why guns were invented. To kill. Target shooting as a sport came later, but it remains practice for accuracy in killing.
   So far this year, just six weeks into 2018, there have been 18 mass shootings at schools in America, the latest today in Florida, where some 17 people died from gunshot wounds -- fired from an AR15 military style semiautomatic long rifle. And the death toll could well rise.
   The bigger tragedy is how common gun homicides are in the U.S. In 2014, for example, 8,124 people were shot to death in America, according to FBI statistics.
   In 2016, that number rose to about 11,000, up from 9,600 in 2015, according to FBI data.
   
   In 2017, at least 15,549 people -- including self-inflicted shootings -- were killed by guns in the U.S., according to data collected by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization. And in January alone of this year, there were 1,260 gun deaths, including 57 children, 245 teenagers, and 25 police officers.

   Nationwide, the death rate was 31 per million, or an average or 27 homicides daily, based on data from 2014. In Poland and England, the rate is one per million, and in Japan, one in 10 million. About the same as being struck by lightning.
   There are hunters, of course, who go out into the woods after deer and other animals that could be a food source. But they don't use military assault weapons. And there is no comparing a school filled with thousands of children at the heart of a major city to a wilderness.
   So how can people claim a need for assault rifles? For self defense in a neighborhood of homes near a major highway? In case of an invasion by a foreign power, says the NRA. As if the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force are not to be trusted, or they are too small or incompetent.
   Yeah, right.

   And that total of 18 mass shootings in just six weeks into the year counts only school incidents. There have been others.
   Yet the National Rifle Association wants reciprocity in gun laws, allowing a person with a license to carry a gun issued by one state to carry that firearm across state lines to any other state.
   Why? To repel an invasion?
   There are people with proven needs for self protection from others who have threatened them with grievous bodily harm. But the answer to that threat is to keep guns away from the threatener, not to arm all those who feel threatened.

   The NRA is swift to react whenever a change to gun laws is mentioned, and their favorite defense is to cite the Second Amendment guarantee of the people of a state to keep and bear arms. In doing so, they conveniently "forget" the first phrase of that Constitutional provision that specifies the need for "a well regulated militia."
   Question: What militia, regulated or otherwise, was this week's Florida shooter a member of?
   As for expressions of sympathy for the families of the dead teenage school children, their teachers, staff and those wounded, there has been no word from the NRA.
   And when will we hear from the president, with words of sympathy and compassion?
   Or is he, like many other politicians, too busy counting campaign donations from the NRA?
   Silence.