Last week at the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms, several groups spoke on behalf of Americans who fear the UN’s treaty on small arms would limit their ability to own guns. After several of them had spoken, it was time for Mary Leigh Blek of the Million Mom March to speak. Blek decided to tell an outright lie.
The gun lobby has been talking for 40 minutes. During that time, 40 people have died from the use of small arms and light weapons in this country. That figure, not the statement of those representatives, is further proof that this country is at war.
Just do the math. If one person dies from a small arm/light weapon in the United States every minute, that translates to 525,600 gun deaths a year. There are only about 2.3 million deaths total in the United States every year — if that claim were true, more than 1 in 5 deaths would be due to gunshots.
In 1997 — the most recent year I could find information for, there were 32,436 gunshot-related deaths. That works out to about 2.5 gunshot deaths every 40 minutes. Blek is only off by about 1600 percent.
All in a days work for gun grabbers.
Source:
Civil Society Groups Highlight Impact Of Firearms Injuries, Gun Ownership Rights In Small Arms Conference Debate.United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms, 8th Meeting July 16, 2001.