On Tue, 5 Feb 2013 02:57:18 +0000 (UTC), Doug Miller
wrote:

John B. wrote in
:

The point isn't guns and cars. The point is deaths. Approximately
43,000 deaths are caused by automobiles every year

Untrue. It hasn't been that high for at least five years. The actual figure is about 34,500.

while guns
(disregarding suicides) cause some 12,000 but there is this fevered
reaction to the 12,000 and a rather jaundiced reaction to another New
Jersey Turnpike crash with 50 dead and 100 injured.

Not sure I agree with your conclusions there; the "fevered reaction" is due IMHO *mostly* to
the suicides -- precisely because the gun control groups never, ever cite the number of
firearm *homicides* to make their point, they always cite the [much larger] number of firearm
*deaths*. And most folks don't know that approximately 2/3 of those deaths are suicides;
instead, they see 32,000 firearm deaths annually and think "horrible, horrible".

In short, the fevered reaction is *not* to the 12,000 homicides. It's to the 32,000 deaths. I think
the reaction would be a lot less fevered if it were well known that:
a) most of those deaths are suicides, and
b) hardly any of them are accidents.

My point wasn't 43,000, or whatever it is, but that we accept a rather
large number of deaths due to automobiles and at the same time descry
a smaller number of deaths due to guns. It is hardly logical. There
were, by the way, some 29,000 deaths due to "Self Harm" in 2000.

--
Cheers,

John B.