There were 52,447 deliberate and 23,237 accidental non-fatal gunshot injuries in the United States during 2000.The majority of gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides, with 17,352 (55.6%) of the total 31,224 firearm-related deaths in 2007 due to suicide, while 12,632 (40.5%) were homicide deaths In 2009, 60% of all homicides in the United States were perpetrated using a firearm.
The number of deaths related to alcohol each year is roughly 75,000 a year.
I guess it would be more practical to abolish alcohol to save more lives than abolish guns. The gun Genie is outta da bottle and it is absurd to deal with all the guns and impractical to do much about it just like trying to deal with immigration and a massive number of people. The best is to manage the situation.

Irresponsible parents usually have irresponsible kids. We have an element of lawlessness with parts of our society. Lillard confuses recklessness with guns by some elements as being promoted by the responsible folks. What responsible person or gun owner HASN'T ALREADY taken a stand for responsible gun use?

He's mixing apples and oranges. His anger and unreasonable attitude surfaces at the end of his letter. He should be criticizing the families that promote such behavior and not those who are thankful for the second amendment.

And only shoot what you're going to eat!

Banning guns is similar to deporting 12,000,000 illegal aliens. One is a very liberal position, the other is a very conservative position. Neither is practical and, oh by the way, there are already laws on the books to cover both but they aren't being enforced.

In your 3385 shootings in 2002, you fail to point out that the 2,896 that were 5-19 were probably mostly young thugs shooting each other. The vast majority were not accidental shootings in the home. If our liberal justice system actually locked up the criminals and KEPT them there, we would not have so many citizens that felt the need to exercise their Constitutional right to keep a locked, loaded, and accessible weapon at home. I am not speaking against safety, but the practicality of the situation is that a gun that is under lock and key is absolutely useless when you need it. It only takes a couple of seconds to kick a door in during a home invasion and that is happening every day right here in our community.

If our government actually secured our border and enforced immigration laws, we would not be having these discussions about separating families, anchor babies, and welfare and medical benefits for those who are not entitled come here and live off of the taxpayers.

Both problems are simply the cost of doing business in a "progressive" society where our government has apparently sided with criminals and lawbreakers. And half of us have chosen to NOT be donors to the beneficiaries of our revolving door justice system and to resist being consumed by the socialist welfare state.

The bigger question on guns is why do so many people suddenly feel need to keep a weapon at home and the answer is liberal governmental policies and our progressive judiciary system which no longer protects it's law abiding citizens. If you are truly concerned with reducing the number of weapons in people's homes then you should be lobbying the judges to lock up criminals and keep them there. There are people buying guns to keep at home who absolutely hate, fear, and know little or nothing about a gun but they buy them because they live in fear of robberies and home invasions. And they see that our judges and prosecutors are doing NOTHING to lock up the criminals. The criminal justice system is nothing more than a speed bump on a superhighway. It don't even slow the little punks and thugs down.

You won't solve the gun in the home "problem" until you cure the crime in our neighborhoods problem. And I don't see any progressives writing letters about locking up the thugs and keeping them there for a really long time so ordinary folks can feel safe in their own homes. On the contrary, I see our politicians and judges supporting legislation that essentially says "let's don't even bother to try to punish criminals". Until that changes, I don't see gun ownership going down and yes, there will continue to be accidental shootings. But guns are not the root of the problem. The root of the problem is crime and perceived danger. Now you start addressing the crime and you'll have yourself something there Dr. Lillard. Until then, you are blaming tornados on people who build storm shelters.

And Gage, Dr.Lillard and the others that think like him, will never, never, understand the common sense of responsible gun owners! They only think one way.........................