Tragedy

The Seattle Times is running a letter to the editor claiming the need for a ban on handguns and assault weapons in light of the 53 people who've died the past month in mass shootings. While each death is tragic, a sense of perspective is necessary to assess the real need and ensure that we are addressing our most serious problems. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 41059 people died in automobile crashes in 2007. That unfortunate number works out to over 3400 per month. Breaking that down further, 4654 pedestrians died in automobile crashes that year, averaging 387 per month. Some of these automobile deaths are even the deliberate product of sick minds. Despite our best efforts at regulating this scourge (We test and license each and every authorized automobile user, require accident insurance, federally tax automobile, gas, and tire purchases, and mandate automobile safety features.) these deaths continue. Clearly the AAA is on the side of death, and we need to ban these instruments of destruction now before we address a comparatively minor issue like guns and the NRA.