2023-09-15 15:39:23
Every day we hear data about deaths in wars, terrorist attacks, countries at war against each other, armed groups fighting to achieve power… However, there is a country where its citizens die in thousands, even more than in countries that are at war or They suffer from terrorism, and it is supposed to be a country at peace. This is the United States, a place where its inhabitants die absurdly in a war against themselves and without fighting for any specific objective. Let’s look at the numbers.
About 49,500 people took their lives last year in the United States, the highest number ever recorded, according to new government data released this August. In fact, suicide is the second leading cause of death among adults ages 25 to 44.
We continue. The number of people killed by gun violence between 2014 and 2022 in the United States amounts to more than 150,000 people, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. During this year there have already been 24,467 deaths from this cause, more than one hundred a day.
Gun violence is the third leading cause of death among American youth ages 15 to 24 and the fourth leading cause of death among children ages 10 to 14.
Already in the last decade, incidents related to firearms left 40 times more dead than attacks classified by the authorities as “terrorist.”
Between January and mid-April 2023, there were 146 mass shootings, defined as armed incidents in which the shooter kills or injures at least four people. It is estimated that there are at least seven massacres of this type every week, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, released by Amnesty International.. From 2014 to 2023, the number has only increased each year, going from around 300 in 2014 to almost 700 in 2022.
Another war front against themselves. More than 109,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in the 12 months from January 2022 to January 2023. A figure that increases every year, in 2021 it already surpassed the 100,000 barrier for the first time. One in three of these deaths is estimated to be from fentanyl. And 15% are for medications distributed by prescription, that is, legal in the United States.
According to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) of the Institute for Economics and Peace, terrorism caused 6,701 deaths worldwide in 2022. If we do numbers, those deaths are those that occur due to violence armed in the United States in two months. More or less the same number as those who commit suicide. The deadliest terrorist group in 2022 was the Islamic State, which caused 1,045 deaths, 1% of those who die from overdoses in the United States. And it goes without saying that the victims of terrorism are concentrated in a few countries, so the chances of dying from terrorism in the United States are more than remote.
As Michael Moore already pointed out, if you are an American you should not worry so much about terrorism, the main threat is yourself because you are statistically more likely to kill yourself than to be killed by a terrorist.
Taken from the author’s personal blog
Cover photo: Viajar washington
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