Would that we summoned the political will to attack the rates of death attributed to firearms, still at obscenely high levels. With this grim statistic we, unfortunately, lead the western world. The New England Journal of Medicine reports that if a gun is in the home, homicide is three times and suicide five times more likely to occur. Then Seattle leaps ahead. Bullets rip into flesh.
Bullets kill and wound.
The fiscal repercussions are staggering. Hospitals and trauma centers close, and the public pays for wheelchairs, prosthetic devices, and, in some cases, a lifetime of care. The civil wallet breaks. Costs cut into resources that could meet other community needs. Bullets also tear into the social fabric, causing fear, anger and isolation, and a drying up of the civic life blood.