Something is bad wrong here. Another month, another mass shooting in America. This time, as with so many other times, the shooter was an American. And yet, neither the government nor the president call this terrorism, as they do when someone of Arab descent kills Americans within our borders.
This is interesting because according to Politifact, deaths due to all jihadist attacks on U.S. soil from 2005 to 2015 are 71, while total gun deaths during the same decade are 301,797. And that’s the point: Americans with guns have killed many more Americans here than terrorist attacks have – 4,250 times more.
How can we justify this? How can we be so afraid of foreign terrorism – to the point of giving up essential freedoms – yet allow ourselves to become numb to the death and destruction caused by home-grown extremists carrying deadly firepower? And how can we believe for a minute that this isn’t tearing apart the fabric of our nation?
Something is bad wrong here.
Ted Markow
Brunswick
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