Monday’s letter to the editor submitted by Vicki Martin should be rebutted. Martin alleges that OECD data show the U.S. has experienced fewer shooting victims per million population than Norway, Finland, Slovakia, Israel and Switzerland. Balderdash.
The U.S. experiences, on average, 31 gun deaths per million residents. Israel has 7.6 deaths per million; Canada is the next highest with 5.6 deaths per million, Germany 2.1 per million, England 0.9 per million and the numbers get smaller from there. Leave the OECD countries and the numbers might equal the odds in the United States. El Salvador has roughly the same kill ratios as Detroit, Baltimore is the equal of Guatemala, Miami the same as Colombia, New Orleans no less dangerous than Honduras.
The preponderance of gun deaths in this country are “good guys,” victims of accidental gun discharges, domestic violence, suicides, drive-by shootings, being in the wrong place when the urge strikes some disgruntled citizen who has access to a firearm regardless of experience or credentials. Yet we allow a powerful lobby to have us believe that armed like a Third World country is what Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and like-minded founders had in mind when they wrote our Constitution. Balderdash.
Mickey Oksner, Midway
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