Firearms not the biggest danger to human life in U.S. or Canada

By Lethbridge Herald on July 8, 2022.

Editor:

While reading the Lethbridge Herald on Wednesday, June 29, I turned to my favourite page “Readers’ Forum. What caught my attention right away was the cartoon, not sure if that is what you should call it, definitely not funny. The caption read “Guess which one the U.S. Supreme Court deems more dangerous to human life.”

 Two pictures below the caption, on the left a firearm and on the right a very innocent looking woman. 

I am guessing that with the present situation in the U.S. with the Supreme Court overturning, Roe v Wade and the always present gun violence, that the correct answer would be “firearms.”

If you made that guess you would be wrong. I looked up a couple of examples. In 2020, in the U.S. there were 45,222 deaths due to firearms. Consisting of 24,292 from suicide and 19,384 to homicides with 1,546 listed as others. I was surprised 54 per cent were suicides. In 2020, in the U.S. there were 930,160 abortions.

 Since I am also guessing that none of the unborn children (fetus) made the decision to end their own lives, the numbers would suggest that in 2020 in the U.S. the picture on the right is almost five times more likely to end human life.

In Canada in 2020, there were 743 firearms homicides and 74,155 abortions or one hundred times more abortions than firearms homicides.

I also looked at 2010 in the U.S. on the same subject. Firearms deaths 31,672 with 19,392 being suicide and 11,078 being homicides. Abortions accounting for 765,651 deaths. 

Now I know as a guy, men have no say in whether a woman should have an abortion or not, as it is their body. However, as a member of society do we have the right to express our concerns regarding the numbers of abortion? On the other side, I am a legal firearms owner, and I am tired of firearms and firearms owners always being the bad guy, especially in Canada. 

In any case, The Readers’ Form asked the question, and I provided a possible answer.

Barrie Orich

Lethbridge