Putting 9/11 And Gun-Related Deaths In Perspective

On September 11, 2001, I had gone through my morning routine and driven to work as usual.   Oddly, I didn't listen to the radio on my way to work.  It was when I got to my office and checked in with my coworkers  that I learned about the planes hitting the World Trade Center towers.  Because I'm on the west coast, I didn't find out about what had happened until after the second plane hit.  We watched in horror, along with the rest of the country, as the event unfolded, the fires grew, the jumpers jumped, and the emergency personnel scrambled to save the people in the towers.  And then the towers fell, first one, then the other, pancaking in a plume of fire and dust, a windstorm of debris and dust rushing along Wall Street like a sandstorm, and loose paper fluttering through the wind like wayward ghosts. 

No work could be done that day, and we went home early.  I sat glued to my TV all evening, flag flying outside at half mast, learning all the details and seeing the towers fall, again and again, from a hundred different camera angles across New York.  It was the biggest declaration of war ever made, and a blow to those like me who wished for peace in the world.  I knew what would be coming next, from G.W. Bush, the self-proclaimed "war president", but it surpassed even my jaded worries.

Nearly 3000 people died that day in the event.  As a direct result of the tragedy, planes ceased to fly for two days across the nation, a war was launched in Afghanistan which persists to today, another war was launched in Iraq (on false accusations of ties between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and the supposed presence of weapons of mass destruction) which also hasn't yet fully ended, the Department of Homeland Security was created (the biggest bureaucracy ever created in the U.S.), the Patriot Act was enacted, curtailing some of America's freedoms, the TSA was created to presume every air traveler is guilty until proven innocent (with mixed results), and we still live in fear of extremists from beyond our borders (as the precautions in New York today can attest).  With all of this in mind, it is an easy argument to make that 9/11 is the one largest, single-day event ever to shape American policy, which cost the most American lives, freedoms, and gross domestic product as a result.

But while we are today mourning the loss of the 3000 who died in 9/11, I ask that you please keep another thought in mind.  The United States loses the same number of people to gun violence every 35 days or so.  That's around 31,224 people a year -- ten times the number who died in 9/11.  Another 66,768 a year are wounded but survive.  In the 10 years since 9/11, that equates to around 300,000 killed and 670,000 injured to gunfire on our streets and in our homes (compare that to the 5800 American soldiers who have died in that time in Iraq and Afghanistan wars).  Imagine, a million people shot in ten years!  But unlike the dramatic results that came after 9/11 -- the wars, the Patriot Act and other legislation, the trillions of dollars spent -- practically nothing has changed to slow the rate of civilian shootings in the U.S.  In fact, with cuts to the ATF, the lapse of the assault weapons ban, and numerous state-level legislative changes around the nation to relax gun laws, our nation has only become more dangerous.  To the NRA, these alarming numbers are collateral, insignificant compared to a warped sense of Second Amendment freedom.

For instance, those who are listed on the Terrorist Watch List are still permitted to purchase firearms.  From a press release by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence:

An earlier department report indicated that some on the Terrorist Watch List appeared to be making multiple attempts to purchase guns.  Some 1,228 purchase attempts through February 2010 were by just 650 individuals.  Nearly 70 percent of the individuals (450 of 650) were involved in multiple transactions and six were involved in 10 or more transactions.

In June, a month after the House Judiciary Committee rejected closing the terror gap in federal gun laws, one of al Qaeda’s terrorist recruiters – American-born Adam Gadahn  –  explained  how easy it is to acquire assault weapons in the United States:

"America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check and most likely without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for?" [see video in this post]

The NRA has twice fought for, and won, the right for potential terrorists on this list to continue legally purchasing guns.

America has become numb to the daily deluge of shootings on the news.  It's a slow drip-drip of American blood which, though far more deadly, hardly garners the attention of a terrorist attack.  Make no doubt about it:  America is at war, but it is fighting an enemy within:  the ease with which criminals are able to get guns.  In Oregon, for instance, and most of America, private gun sales require no background check, no ID, and no paperwork.  It's just cash and carry.  A seller has no way of knowing if the buyer is a felon, an abuser, mentally ill, has a warrant for his arrest, or is even of appropriate age.  And since the seller isn't required to check, he isn't held accountable for the sale.

Every life is precious.  Is the death of three thousand people by gun any less horrifying and terrible than by plane? 

We rightly mark the passing of those in the 9/11 tragedy today with somber remembrance and caution.  But tomorrow the flags will be folded, people will go back to work, and the evening news will return to daily reports of death by bullet.  After the passage of another 35 days, when we once again match the number dead on 9/11, what will you have done to help prevent  gun violence?


(See HERE for a good, related blog post by Dennis Henigan for the need to close the "Terror Gap").