Dear Diary

This is a rant – I fell asleep without posting it last night.

Gun laws are big with politicians. At least the discussion is important when elections draw near. After all, the right to bear arms is near and dear to many of us. It probably rates higher than baseball, mom and apple pie. Anything with that kind of popularity has to be used by politicians to distract us from things they really don’t want us to see, hear or know anything about. I have a lot of confidence in them!

Anyway, I did a bit of research. For the record, 2020 is the most recent year with complete data available.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a total of 45,222 people died from gun-related injuries of all causes during 2020; 54% were suicide. 3% were accidental. So what happened to the other 43%? That’s what I’m wondering. Are we to believe they were murders? Fireworks celebrations? Target practice? We had lots of that at my house when I was a kid.

The rate of gun fatalities varies widely from state to state. In 2020, the states with the highest rates of gun-related deaths – counting murders, suicides and all other categories tracked by the CDC – included Mississippi (28.6 per 100,000 people), Louisiana (26.3), Wyoming (25.9), Missouri (23.9) and Alabama (23.6). These are really high numbers!

The states with the lowest rates included New York (5.3), Rhode Island (5.1), New Jersey (5.0), Massachusetts (3.7) and Hawaii (3.4).

By the way, Texas wasn’t listed but had 14.2, while Illinois, with tougher gun laws, had 14.1. I was curious about that in particular.

US states with the toughest gun laws: California, Hawaii, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey. So what’s going on in California, Maryland and Illinois? They weren’t among the states with the lowest rates of gun related deaths. Why not? I’ll work on digging that information up.

New gun safety legislation was signed into law in June of this year. Fourteen Republicans voted for the bill — titled, believe it or not, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — and it was released by Republican Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

So what does it all mean? Well, I’m an old woman and there are many things I don’t know, but it seems common sense dictates that if you own a gun (and I do) you should be a responsible gun owner. Lock ‘em up. No private sales. Don’t you think firearm safety and education should be required to purchase a weapon?And if you point a gun at something/someone, acknowledge that the gun is only as safe as you make it. Don’t point at anything or anyone you’re not prepared to shoot.

Unload your weapons before you put them away. That’s logical, don’t you think? Watch your kids. I’m not saying be responsible for them. You ARE responsible for them. Teach them to respect the value of life. All life. A loaded gun isn’t like a video game.

Rant over.