Guns, Knives etc

The tragic bombing by two terrorists at the Boston Marathon left 4 dead and 100 wounded, some with amputated limbs. Yet, sad as this event was, the annual death rate in the USA from guns, is totally unbelievable. Even more unbelievable is the attitude of politicians who refuse to do something/anything positive to reduce this number. In today’s edition of The Observer one of their USA reporters writes:-

At the same time that investigators were in the midst of a high-profile manhunt for the marathon bombers that ended on Friday evening, 38 more Americans – with little fanfare – died from gun violence. One was a 22-year old resident of Boston. They are a tiny percentage of the 3,531 Americans killed by guns in the past four months – a total that surpasses the number of Americans who died on 9/11 and is one fewer than the number of US soldiers who lost their lives in combat operations in Iraq. Yet, none of this daily violence was considered urgent enough to motivate Congress to impose a mild, common-sense restriction on gun purchasers. Michael Cohen The Observer Sunday 21st April.

Today there was news on another stabbing in London. Whilst the Americans could, if they had the will, ban the sale of guns, we seem helpless to stop knife crime.