More ridiculous reporting on guns: "Celebrating a tool of death"

There is a lot more wrong with this article once you get past the inane headline.

Saturday is Gun Appreciation Day, an occasion to feel good about a consumer product that is guaranteed to play a role in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans this year.

That’s not hyperbole. Roughly 30,000 people have been killed annually by guns in this country since 1979, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2010, the latest year for which statistics are available, the body count was 31,672.

That places guns in unique company as a legal, over-the-counter product that, in the hands of some users, will kill people. Not may kill people, like a defective baby stroller or vehicle. Will kill people.

Exempting motor vehicles from the “unique company”? Since he’s using 2010 statistics, let’s stick with that year. There were 32,885 traffic fatalities in 2010. Per the author’s logic, doesn’t this make cars an over the counter product that will kill people?

Of the 31,672 gun fatalities in 2010, 19,392 were suicides. Blaming the implement used to facilitate these tragedies all but completely ignores the real problem and the fact that it’s more than likely those people would have found an alternative method had a gun not been available.

Twenty paragraphs into an article about the politics of gun control, the author offers this:

It’s not my intent to delve into the politics of gun control. What fascinates me is the reluctance among some to acknowledge that guns are inherently dangerous, just as cigarettes and alcohol are.

Who are these “some”? Long time gun owners do nothing but acknowledge that guns are dangerous, which is why we’re careful with them. Again, note the absence of motor vehicles from the list of inherently dangerous items used frequently by Americans.

It’s the logical inconsistency that I’m taking to task here. If the goal is to put severe restrictions on, or do away with, things that are, as the author says “guaranteed to play a role in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans” each year then let’s put it all on the table for purposes of discussion.