imported post
Ok so here is the super short version. I wrote it had some interesting conversations with a journalist who posted a good story about one our Open carry guys in California protesting at a gun buy back in Compton I believe. She helped me edited this shorter one I wrote. Bellingham still won't take it for Op Ed they only accept 200 words.
Before everyone get's on me about the statistics in the few weeks between rewriting CDC.Gov had changed statistics and the way they format there site. But all of the following is accurate to the best of my knowledge. And I was forced to compare 2006 gun deaths to 2007 deaths by neglect or abuse.
She also edited my longer version and it reads much better, but at 800 words doubt anyone will publish it, but if anyone wants to submit the following to papers, magazines or articles as long as it gets properly credited especially since I had Allison's help. (She is now interested in going to the range and has family up here in Washington)
Forget Gun Control, We Need Parent Control
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1,549 children ages 17 and younger were killed by firearms in the United States in 2006. The following year, approximately 1,760 died from abuse or neglect ]
Pertaining to death by abuse“[/b]Seventy-six percent or more deaths occurred among children younger than age 4; 13 percent among 4- to 7-year-olds; 5 percent among 8- to 11-year-olds; 5 percent among 12- to 15-year-olds; and 2 percent among 16- to 17- year-olds,”according to the CDC’s Web site, http://www.cdc.gov.
[/b]
Eighty-nine percent of the children killed by neglect/abuse, or 1,559.36, were under age 7; 94 percent, or 1,647, were under age 12. In 2006, less than 10 percent of children under the age of 12, or 176, were killed by firearms.
According to the Administration for Children and Families, http://www.acf.hhs.gov, statistics [/b]for 2007 show that 1,091 children under age 7, or 70 percent, were killed due to abuse or neglect by their parents, while in 2006, 102 children were killed by firearm. This suggests that parents are more than 1,000 percent more dangerous than firearms.
Some kids around 12-13 begin associating with gangs, and sadly, some kill themselves. “Kids” ages 14-17 are having sex, having babies, driving, drinking, indulging in drugs and other “adult” activities. They are not acting like the children we think of when “experts” bring up statistics. The majority of teens killed by firearms are involved in criminal activity Where are their parents? Should we regulate who can have children? After all, it’s for our “kid’s safety.”
Robert M. Stratton
Edited by: Allison Jean Eaton