August 31, 2019 (Saturday)
Can it be the last day of August? Is summer really over? Labor Day, the closing curtain for summer activities, is set for day after tomorrow. Wow.
This used to be the signal to get back in school, but that schedule changed years ago. School has already started in most places. Professional, college and public school sports schedules are active.
Goodbye, August. Hello, September. Welcome to a new day. Every school now has taken steps to increase security. Churches are doing the same. But those who target groups of people have attacked many different kinds of groups. Wherever people get together in close-knit activities, they become potential targets of shooters.
Recently I became curious about trends in mass murders. I found several sites on the internet that displayed statistics. I was shocked to discover that gun violence has a face that most of us have not given a lot of thought. And that is the matter of suicide by firearms. We are shocked by the numbers of innocent people being killed senselessly by mass murderers, but, if you are like me, you are shocked to find out that although gun homicides get far more attention in the popular press, most gun deaths are the result of suicide. In 2016, the last year for which the CDC provides numbers, 22,938 people (62 every day) committed suicide by firearm, while 14,415 (40 every day) people died in gun homicides. Historical data shows it’s been this way for a while.
We are unnerved, shocked and dismayed by the number of shootings in which a person with firearms enters a place where many people have gathered and randomly takes the lives of innocent victims. We need to make whatever changes we can that will reduce the number of these senseless massacres. We also need to remember the constant threat of terrorism, international and local. But surely the suicide rate should alarm us all.