Did you know?

I was shocked to read in this week's issue of Newsweek that in the United States, there are 90 firearms owned for every 100 people. Now, before you take the angle, well, we've got the most military weapons stockpiled in the world....this is specifically labeled "Civilian Arsenals". So I suppose that figure wouldn't even include police weapons. What are we so afraid of? The number of weapons per 100 in Iraq is 39, and that's a war zone! (Numbers for Canada and several European countries are in the low 30's.)

There's lots of talk on the news lately after the V-Tech shootings, where the killer was obviously a danger "to himself and others" as evidenced by many on campus and even a court ruling. However, there's nothing in place in most states to prevent him from buying a gun (even though technically it's illegal, most states have no system for reporting it and there's no requirement for a mental health certificate. Heck, it's just a gun, right?) Something is very, very broken.

It's even more disturbing to think of that after looking at another graph, which showed that of the 29,645 annual firearms death in the US, almost 17,000 of them were suicides. I know mental health is a sensitive issue for many, but when lives are at stake, I don't think it's asking too much to require a credible certificate of mental health for gun purchase. Of course, I'd prefer that no one bought guns at all, but the NRA says otherwise, so we'll make what steps we can.