Since someone already made the connection with the COVID body count, it might also be interesting to compare the toll of war dead with:
1) the number of people killed on American highways in motor vehicle crashes, and 2) the number of people killed by privately-owned firearms in drive-bys, domestic violence cases, gang-related incidents, school shootings, and other massed-crowd attacks.
Two thousand children under 13 are murdered every year. Lest we get too distracted by high profile school shootings, most of these happen at home in connection with domestic violence. Locking school doors won't help with those.
I'm surprised by the number given for Vietnam. I remember learning that it was 58,220.
ReplyDeleteYeah, me too. There's a comment discussion at the PBS link about that, but no real answers.
ReplyDeleteAnd 650,000 for the civil war.
ReplyDeleteTotal US Covid deaths 1,001,313.
ReplyDeleteSince someone already made the connection with the COVID body count, it might also be interesting to compare the toll of war dead with:
ReplyDelete1) the number of people killed on American highways in motor vehicle crashes, and
2) the number of people killed by privately-owned firearms in drive-bys, domestic violence cases, gang-related incidents, school shootings, and other massed-crowd attacks.
-"BB"-
Traffic fatalities were about 43,000 in 2021. On a per capita and per miles traveled basis, this is generally trending downward.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_vehicle_fatality_rate_in_U.S._by_year#/media/File:US_traffic_deaths_per_VMT,_VMT,_per_capita,_and_total_annual_deaths.png
Gun deaths run about 15,000 per year, and an additional 24,000 gun suicides.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.gunviolencearchive.org/
Total US deaths per year run about 3.4mm
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
Two thousand children under 13 are murdered every year. Lest we get too distracted by high profile school shootings, most of these happen at home in connection with domestic violence. Locking school doors won't help with those.
ReplyDeleteWell, so much for What Memorial Day is for.
ReplyDeleteThere were once 58,220 names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial - that gets updated fairly regularly.
All good points to ponder and try to find solutions, but this holiday is about honoring war/military casualties.
ReplyDeleteMemorial Day is for those who died in service to our country in war.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the US has way too many horrific premature deaths that we need to prevent. But that's not what Memorial Day is for.
'Indian war' ?
ReplyDeleteWasn't that just a decimation of an entire race ?
My history books were not American.