Recent figures reveal Washington state might witness its deadliest year on highways since the 1990s.
Surprisingly, there are no demands to ban cars. This observation comes from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA).
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb identifies a stark contrast.
“This reflects a glaring hypocrisy on the part of people advocating for stricter gun control laws and bans on certain firearms,” he said in a press release obtained by GunsAmerica.
“The gun prohibition lobby and their allies in Olympia (the state capital) have promoted gun bans and restrictions on gun owners, but all we hear are crickets when it comes to traffic deaths,” he continued. “Evidently, lives lost on the highway are somehow less important.”
Gottlieb takes issue with the gun control advocates’ perspective. According to the Seattle-based Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a person dies from a gunshot every 12 hours in Washington.
SEE ALSO: SAF Sues Washington State Over Black Rifle Ban
Interestingly, when discussing road fatalities, blame doesn’t land on the vehicles.
“Nobody claims traffic victims are killed by cars or trucks,” he noted. “Instead, media reports acknowledge 30 percent of crashes involved alcohol-impaired drivers, 37 percent of the people involved test positive for drugs, and another 28 percent were speeding. People do those things, not the cars they drive, just like guns don’t have a finger to pull their own trigger.”
Critics point out Washington’s ranking: “40th highest in gun violence in the US.”
Gottlieb translates: “That translates to being tenth from the bottom. Apparently, the gun prohibition crowd is hoping nobody does the math but is only impressed by dramatic rhetoric.”
To shed light on this, Gottlieb cites recent CDC data.
“But if you look at the most recent data from the CDC, the leading cause of death in Washington is cancer, and the drug overdose death rate—28.1 per 100,000—is more than twice as high as the firearm injury death rate of 11.2 per 100,000, and the homicide rate is 4.5 per 100,000, which is lower than the rate in Maryland, New Jersey, New York or California, all states with stricter gun laws.”
“Let’s remember one very important thing,” he observed. “Driving is not a right protected by the Constitution, but keeping and bearing arms is. The Citizens Committee is vigorously defending that right.”
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