What kills more innocent people

[frankieallen]

Every year in the US, guns or drugs?

[demmiblue]

1. Poverty. n/t

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. Zero sum analogies. nt

[Angry Dragon]

3. Death

[Glassunion]

6. Technically, the leading cause of death is birth. Without the latter, you can't have the former.

[hack89]

4. Are people that commit suicide considered "innocent"?

assuming that you are using innocent in the sense of someone who was life was taken away against their will.

[Exilednight]

5. That's like comparing apples and hammers.

It makes no sense when both require different remedies.

[Iggo]

7. Doesn't matter.

[tenderfoot]

8. Death

eom

[SheilaT]

9. Among the problems with a question like this,

is that there are a great many unexamined assumptions behind it. Such as, if drugs kill more innocent people than guns, we should focus all our attention on those drugs. As if we can't work on more than one problem at a time.

Heck, tobacco is the single biggest cause of death in this country: about 480,000 people die each year from its effects, including those only exposed to second hand smoke. Obviously, the number killed by firearms is a drop in the bucket compared to that.

But lots of people, and not just smokers, are in a lot of denial about just how bad smoking is for you. Tobacco has an astonishingly lrge number of defenders.

But if you want to get a sense of the long-term effects of smoking, just go to a 50th high school reunion. It will be immediately obvious who the smokers are. Those that are still alive, that is. And those who never smoked will look at least 15 years younger than the smokers.

Of course, tobacco is legal, and as addictive as it is, no one is forcing anyone to smoke, although the second-hand smoke thing is problematical here.

Anyway, the question seems to suggest that we should concentrate solely on whichever is worse, guns or drugs, and that's nonsense.

[jmg257]

10. "Drug overdose deaths hit record numbers in 2014

Over 47,000 deaths last year, mostly due to opioid pain relievers and heroin"

[Igel]

11. Bad question because it's so ill-formed. It'll take a lot of work to make it reasonable.

It needs more information before the answer's good for anything. What's the information to be used for? What information can you use to produce the answer.

Easy answer: Drugs.

Another easy answer: Guns.

Depending on what the question means, either's a good answer.

Illegal drugs? Legal drugs? Narcotics? Recreational use?

Guns--suicide? Murder. Accidents? What if somebody gets clubbed to death with a gun?

Are we talking US or the world? Some portion of the world?

In war or just non-military use?

And, the really important question, does this include potato guns?

[frankieallen]

15. Let's leave potato guns out of this 😊

[hobbit709]

12. Lack of affordable health care.

[madokie]

17. Without a doubt

[frankieallen]

13. I was curious what kind of response I would get to this question,

I haven't seen anyone make this comparison on DU. The general consensus about drugs here is, legalize them, war against drugs is a complete failure, government is inserting themselves in the Dr, patient relationship, blah blah blah.
But when it comes to guns, different story..basically polar opposite response.
"We need to ban guns, gun nuts are idiots, we need to take away guns, they are killing people!!"
I am a responsible gun owner, I have the right to own a gun, yes, even a semi auto with a 30 round clip, if that's what i choose. Drugs kill "way" more people, cost the taxpayer "way" more money, yet the "anti-gunners" who are consistently attacking my support of legal gun ownership, for the most part, think drugs are ok, and we need to do away with government restrictions.
Seems hypocritical to me.

[VOX]

14. Congrats on your friendship with your lethal gizmo.

And yes, EVERY gat-owner self-identifies as "responsible," right up to the moment they blow off their toes, or worse. I know whereof I speak as a former gun owner...I soured on the idea when my best friend accidentally blew his brains out with a .45 ACP. He was the soul of caution, too. Very responsible husband & father, no drink or drugs. Just left one round "up the spout" at some point. Decades of responsibility erased in a careless instant.

Here's the thing: NO RIGHT IS ABSOLUTE. None, not even free speech. In California, your fully-erect 30-round mag is illegal, so there's one small limitation right there. WTF do you need that massive ammo-processor for? Home renovation? Defending Guadalcanal against Japanese night assaults? Surely not for mere plinking.

Your guns-drugs analogy doesn't fly. While both are public health concerns, the comparison stops there. While drugs can kill, they cannot wipe out dozens of innocent bystanders in a public venue in mere moments. They cannot be used to take hostages, or murder a family in their sleep. They cannot pick off LEOs from a rooftop, or take out a free-world leader in a Dallas motorcade.

Yes, you do have a constitutional right to own a firearm, and I'm not a grabber. You can keep your all your steel. Buy more, if you like. Where I draw the line is when (if) I encounter a like-"collector" who's having a bad day and wants to spray lead around town. Where are my rights to a peaceful existence? Pursuit of happiness? To just live freely without keeping my head on a swivel?

This is what I would ask of all gun owners (make of it what you will): When you possess the the means to swiftly take a human life, you have a greater responsibility to prove your fitness to carry the tools that may create that end. Demonstrate that you're capable of assuming that awesome responsibility.

[frankieallen]

16. For the record, I don't own a rifle or a 30 round clip, just a pump shotgun.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

18. Depends on what you mean by "innocent".

About 50% more people kill themselves with drugs than are killed by guns.

Far more people kill others with guns than with drugs.

[Rex]

19. How do drugs kill innocent people?

You mean like Big Pharma pushing drugs?