Group Claims Armed
Citizens Have Killed More Americans than All Wars Combined
by AWR Hawkins26 Sep 2015
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.
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