Group Claims Armed Citizens Have Killed More Americans than All Wars Combined

Group Claims Armed Citizens Have Killed More Americans than All Wars Combined

by AWR Hawkins26 Sep 2015

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/26/group-claims-armed-citizens-killed-americans-wars-combined/

On September 21 Americans for Responsible Solutions–the gun control group founded by Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly–tweeted numbers from the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAP) claiming armed citizens in America have killed more people since 1989 than all wars since 1776 combined.

The tweet contains a meme which says, “The number of deaths from gun violence just since Reagan’s presidency is higher than the number of soldiers killed in combat in all of U.S. history.”

CAP then claims “gun-related deaths in the United States from 1989 to 2014 [were] 836,290,” and claims the “total U.S. military killed in war from 1776 to 2015 [was] 656,397.” The problem with the way CAP presents this–and Americans for Responsible Solutions retweets it–is not that the gun deaths are exaggerated, but that the military deaths are much, much higher than CAP reports.

In fact, gun deaths are actually dwarfed by military deaths.

Think about it–the figure for gun deaths represents a rough average of slightly more than 10,000 fire-related homicides a year and 20,000 firearm-related suicides a year over a 27-year period. This gives CAP a figure of 836,290 firearm-related deaths from 1989 to 2015. To make that number appear more pronounced they quote military deaths since 1776 at 656,397 without explaining how they overlooked the fact that approximately 600,000 were killed in the Civil War alone.

In fact, if we take deaths from the Civil War–600,000, and add the deaths from World War I–approx. 115,000, World War II–418,000, Korea–35,000, and Vietnam–58,000, we are already at 1,226,000 American deaths and we haven’t even added the deaths from the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Spanish / American War, Desert Storm, Afghanistan, Iraq, and others.

The bottom line–gun deaths in America do not come close approaching the number of deaths our men and women in uniform have suffered while fighting for our freedom. The figure CAP provided for all military deaths from 1776 to 2015 barely covered the deaths in the Civil War alone.

Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAP)

Center for American Progress Action Fund is an affiliated advocacy group for the Center for American Progress.

Note: Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Center for American Progress.

George Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, was a supporter for the for the Center for American Progress, the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone.

Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Center for American Progress, the Harlem Children's Zone, and the Robin Hood Foundation.

Michael R. Bloomberg was a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, a donor for the Robin Hood Foundation, a contributor for the Americans for Responsible Solutions, is a co-chair for Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and the founder of Everytown for Gun Safety.

Mark E. Kelly is a co-founder for the Americans for Responsible Solutions, and married to Gabrielle Giffords.

Gabrielle Giffords is married to Mark E. Kelly, and a co-founder for the Americans for Responsible Solutions.

Americans for Responsible Solutions is a “gun safety” PAC for guns.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns is a “gun safety” group for guns.

Everytown for Gun Safety is a “gun safety” group for guns.