In her Sunday letter, Sherry Hobbs points out that there are approximately 45,000 firearm deaths each year in the United States. She then implies that many of these deaths involve otherwise good people who lose their temper after a few drinks and have easy access to a gun. The implication is that these are homicides.
That couldn’t be further from the truth. Of those approximately 45,000 firearm deaths, more than 27,000 are suicides. The number of firearm homicides is closer to 15,000.
The larger error, however, is the assumption that making it harder to legally purchase a gun will solve the problem. There are already numerous laws governing the legal purchase of firearms. The reality is that criminals do not have to walk into a gun store and legally purchase a firearm. Guns can be obtained illegally on the street, just as illegal drugs can.
If passing laws were enough to stop gun homicides, then those same principles should have solved an even larger problem: drug overdose deaths in the United States. There are approximately 79,000 overdose deaths a year, despite the fact that many of the drugs responsible are already illegal or strictly controlled.
The United States also spends $45 billion every year enforcing its drug laws, yet illegal drugs remain readily available. That should tell us something important. Passing additional laws does not necessarily prevent someone who is already willing to break the law from obtaining something illegally.
We should identify and pursue reasonable ways to reduce gun and drug overdose deaths, but an accurate understanding of the issues is required.
