PERSPECTIVES

 

 

Most of us are trying to seek reason or rationale, some sort of sense of why behind the horrific mass shootings that are sadly becoming an almost daily event. I am a security consultant, it is my job to identify threats and to do something about making them go away. For an abstract threat like modern terrorism or this latest human threat vector, the first step is to understand the phenomenon, and putting things into perspective is one approach. Please read on: 

 

 

In 2018, the most recent year for which data are available as of 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) National Center for Health Statistics reports 38,390 deaths by firearm, of which 24,432 were by suicide and 13,958 were homicides, a percentage of which were law enforcement and self-defense related killings. These 13,938 homicides can largely be attributed - directly or indirectly - to the drug war that has been going on in our country for at least the past fifty years. 

 

According to the FBI, there were 27 "active shooter" incidents in the U.S. in 2018, resulting in 213 casualties including 85 deaths. 

 

Also according to the CDC, in 2018 there were 619,591 abortions. Around 1 to 2% of these (about 6000 per year) are late term abortion, where the baby is killed as it comes out the birth canal.

 

619,591 deaths due to abortion versus 13,958 gun homicides is about a 44:1 ratio. In other words, for every person killed in a gun homicide (including law enforcement and self-defense related killings), forty four innocent lives are taken deliberately and legally. 6000+/- late term abortion deaths versus 85 active shooter deaths is an even more lopsided ratio, about 70:1. In other words, for every one person who perishes in the horror of an active shooter event, seventy innocents are killed in an even more horrific fashion, right at the moment of their entry into this world. 

 

An active shooter is an individual who has lost his humanity, has reduced himself to a soulless killing machine - as insane a concept as this is, I almost get this. As for the methodical killing of the unborn - the most perfect and innocent of us all - I don't know how the doctors do it ... I don't know how they maintain their sanity, their humanity ...