I’ve been in the security profession over 44 years. During this tenure I’ve had the opportunity to speak all over the nation on the topic of violence prevention and workplace safety. As a preface to virtually every talk I advise the audience that I will not engage in any gun control “debate” given the volatile exchanges that inevitably erupt when the subject is broached. Let’s look at our everyday facts regarding our nation’s gun statistics.
Every day, 310 people are shot in the United States. Among these: 100 people are shot and killed; 95 are injured in an attack; 61 die from suicide; one is killed unintentionally; 90 are shot unintentionally.
The numbers are numbing and we do a huge discredit to the victims when we focus solely on the headline-grabbing slaughters that are becoming far too common. Very little emphasis is given to suicide by gun and our domestic violence realities.
That said there is one sobering trend that demands the attention and concern of all reasoned Americans. That concern is the near-exponential growth of white nationalist and white supremacist groups in recent years.
The threat of domestic terrorism with a supremacist theme grows by the hour. The collective law enforcement and citizen action groups of the nation need to unite and meet this growing threat of white supremacists head on. Failure to do so will lead to incidents of mass shootings, slaughters, and tragedies that far exceed our recent tragedies.
The popular talking point of vacuous politicians is to tirade about our mental health problem as the origin and leading culprit for our daily gun carnage. This is a smoke screen that attempts to side step our nation’s realities. The challenges we face are real.
Jim Sawyer
Edmonds
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