https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/p ... un-deaths/
So, who is it that's depressing us today? Whose turn is it? Hey, American Academy of Pediatrics, you're up, folks. From the New York Times:
Looked at from space, this is a view of a country gone mad. Looked at from the ground, this is a view of a country without decency or shame. Firearms are now the leading cause of accidental death among the country's children. Deaths among our children from gunfire increased 87 percent over a decade during which political power was pretty much evenly divided between the two major parties, a decade bookended by one Supreme Court decision that established an individual right to arm yourself like a heavy weapons platoon and another that demolished a state's ability to restrict that ability on behalf of its citizens. And, this November, the Court will weigh in on a law that would disarm anyone subject to a restraining order based on domestic violence. A federal law to that effect was struck down by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the funhouse mirror of the federal judiciary.But according to an analysis published on Thursday, the rate of firearm fatalities among children under 18 increased by 87 percent from 2011 through 2021 in the United States. The death rate attributable to car accidents fell by almost half, leaving firearm injuries the top cause of accidental death in children. The finding underscores additional data showing that firearm injuries are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 20, after excluding deaths of infants born prematurely or with congenital abnormalities. Some 2,590 children and teenagers under the age of 18 died of firearm injuries in 2021, up from 1,311 in 2011, according to the study, which was published in the journal Pediatrics. In other industrialized countries, guns are not even among the top three causes of death for children.
How are these even damn arguments? Of course, people forbidden to contact the spouse they've beaten shouldn't have a gun. Of course, a state has the right to protect its citizens from lethal weaponry. Of course, the Constitution doesn't bless the idea of an unlimited right to an individual arsenal. No Constitution devised by thinking human beings would permit that. No Constitution devised by thinking human beings would prevent its government from acting in the face of statistics like these. Nor would it envision a national legislature paralyzed by money and intimidation. The Constitution isn't a suicide pact, but it's not supposed to be a homicide pact either.
