Slaughterhouse of Civilization

Los Angeles Times ^ | Richard North Patterson

[boris]

Slaughterhouse of Civilization

For far too long, the United States has been subjected to staggering carnage, thanks to an entrenched gun lobby.

By Richard North Patterson

We Americans tend to think of gun violence in terms of some traumatic event: Columbine or Martin Luther King Jr. or Robert Kennedy, rather than as a daily fact of American life. All of us know that every assassination of an American president was committed with a gun. All of us who were alive remember the terrible day when John F. Kennedy was murdered. But too few of us know that, since that day, more Americans have died from gunshot wounds here at home than died in all the wars of the 20th century, the bloodiest 100 years in world history.

And as horrific as was the carnage at the World Trade Center, it would take Osama bin Laden nine more such attacks to equal what we Americans do to ourselves every year with guns.

[boris]

Somebody add him to the "enemies list"...

[Tijeras_Slim]

Looks like time to do a review at Amazon.

[Core_Conservative]

This guy is an @SS!

[HadEnough]

He's just afraid...because he is unarmed and easy prey.

[Pete]

To paraphrase Archie Bunker, "I suppose he would feel better if they were thrown out of windows."

It's not the gun that is bad. It is the person committing the crime.

[boris]

"letters@latimes.com"

Name, address, phone number. Keep it less than 150 words. Only name and town are published.

--Boris

[Let's Roll]

When I saw the headline I thought they were referring to the 1.5 million abortions performed annually in this country. Silly me.

[Tallguy]

Somebody remind this jack@ss that in Japan and the Phillipines they used to assassinate people with edged weapons. Imelda Marcos survived just such an attempt (with a machete), so it can still happen. While guns are used, explosives are the weapon of choice with the IRA & PLO. There are alternatives, and that's my point.

[WorkingClassFilth]

"But too few of us know that...more Americans have died from gunshot wounds here at home than died in all the wars of the 20th century..."

'Scuse me.

I guess I didn't see the part where the author tells us that the vast majority of these deaths are commited by criminals on criminals. Criminals that, for some zany reason, are on the streets even after multiple convictions.

Did I miss something?

[Servant of the 9]

He obviously hasn't looked at England lately. Since outlawing firearms their murder/violent crime rates have spiraled out of control and at this rate will pas the United States rate next year.

SO9

[absalom01]

.

[RiflemanSharpe]

Another unbiased and fair piece from the LA Times. Sarcasm off

[Steve_Seattle]

The mortality figure for auto accidents is much higher than for gun-related homicides, but you probably won't hear this fellow advocating a ban on cars.

[FierceDraka]

He's just afraid...because he is unarmed and easy prey.

Couldn't have said it better myself. He's a stupid, scared little lamb.

[Snuffington]

And as horrific as was the carnage at the World Trade Center, it would take Osama bin Laden nine more such attacks to equal what we Americans do to ourselves every year with guns.

And let's not even START on what we do to ourselves with cars! Why on earth we Americans are allowed to own anything is beyond me. We ought to be confined to zoos or something.

[MHGinTN]

He's proven one thing, that he's an inappropriate one for concealed carry ... not sufficient brains to know how or why.

[archy]

Somebody add him to the "enemies list"...

To my knowledge, he's been on it since version 3.2, now up to version 12 or so.

-archy-/-

[tet68]

! Why on earth we Americans are allowed to own anything is beyond me. We ought to be confined to zoos or something.

ROFl !

[El Gato]

But too few of us know that, since that day, more Americans have died from gunshot wounds here at home than died in all the wars of the 20th century, the bloodiest 100 years in world history.

Of course he fails to mention that very, very few Americans died at the hands their government. The 20th century was indeed bloody, but most of the blood was governments killing their unarmed or more frequently disarmed citizenry.

[El Gato]

We ought to be confined to zoos or something.

Hillary, et. al., are working on it. Given their druthers, they'll turn the whole country into a zoo, with us, most especially the likes of FReepers, the featured attraction.