There have been a lot of pro-gun activists this week pointing out that earlier in the week, a kid who was an ISIS sympathizer/supporter showed up to a Utah school with a bomb in his backpack. Now, because of a malfunction, his backpack started smoking, and he was caught before any damage was done.
Pro-gun activists are quick to jump on the fact that this has not gotten the kind of news coverage that the Parkland shootings did...claiming it is because it doesn't meet the narrative for gun control! What they fail to acknowledge is that incidents happen all the time that aren't reported on the national front. Why? Because no one is harmed! There have been many more than 12 cases of a someone with a gun on a school campus since January...but you only hear about the 12 where someone was actually injured or hurt. "But he had a bomb...proves that taking away guns won't solve the issue!" Again, MOST of us are not calling for the disarming of a nation...we are not out to take away your damn guns! What we want is for it to be harder for evil or unstable people to have access to guns! Guns are more common, because they are easier! There are many more cases of guns being used to hurt people than there are bombs, because bombs require more work! I've said this before. You have to gather the ingredients and parts. You have to find the instructions on the web. You have to construct the bomb without blowing yourself up! Most people are going to go to all that work.
Guns are used in far more intentional attacks on people than bombs or cars, but you can't tell the pro-gun activists that. They will point you to drunk drivers and general accidents due to reckless driving or what not, and point out that more people are killed by cars every year than guns. They will fail to also note that very, very few of those deaths are intentional. Hardly anyone says on a Friday night, "I'm going to go get drunk, and then I'm going to go kill someone with my car." No one says, "I'm going to leave the house today and go blasting through a red light and kill someone while playing on my cell phone." The difference is intent!
Of course, then they come at you with the medical stats, about how many people die every year by this and that...heart disease, stroke, whatever. Guess what, everyone dies at some point. When that is for each person, no one knows. If we don't die by the actions of another person, our bodies will eventually start breaking down...some sooner than others, based on genetics. A guy I dated back in my early 20's...his dad died in his 40's due to a severe heart attack. The guy I used to date? I found out a few years ago that he died just shy of age 50...due to a severe heart attack! Could it have been avoided? Maybe, but the point is, genetically, that is what he was already at risk for. There is no promise that anything he did in his life would have changed anything dramatically. There are plenty of people who have eaten healthy and exercised that still had heart attacks! While diet and exercise, yes, reduce your risk, depending on your exact genetic markers, there is no guarantee. Just like I've known people who smoked all their lives, and still lived well into their 90's without a trace of cancer...because of their genetics! So, don't start throwing "natural causes" numbers at me with relation to a gun argument!
Actually, I'm rather surprised that not more of the media picked up the backpack story, because of the ISIS tie, I would have fully expected certain folks to jump on the "see this is why we need immigration reform" narrative again!