Karl Miller’s last column ended with the statement: “a gentle reminder: 64,999,987 American gun owners killed no one yesterday, nor today, nor will they do so tomorrow.” Unfortunately, we must have 65,000,080 gun owners because 95 of them did kill someone on each of those days (assuming those days are average). At approximately 34,500 gun deaths per year, according to StateMaster.com, we average 95 per day. That is 285 for the 3-day stretch mentioned in Mr. Miller’s column. About one-third are murders.
Mr. Miller’s stats indirectly reveal that there are 235,000,000 Americans who do not own a gun. His “gentle reminder” would have been more revealing had he said: 235,000,000 American non-gun-owners killed no one yesterday, or today, nor will they do so tomorrow.
Perhaps my opinion is selfishly influenced by my inability to conceal my own Browning 16 gauge shotgun in my pants. But for the record, I am opposed to concealed weapons in Missouri because Missouri voters voted against them and I do not like the notion of our state legislators overturning the outcome of that referendum.
In closing, I have a couple of questions: Are concealed weapons allowed in the house chamber of the state capital building? If not, why not?