While we are all shocked by terrorist murders in the United States and Europe, terrorism risks are minimal compared to the risk of being killed by a gun in the United States. Between 2001 and 2013, more than 400,000 people in the U.S. were killed with guns while only 3,380 were killed in terrorist attacks, mostly on 9/11. Today and every day, more than 80 people will die from guns in the United States, more than twice the number who died in Brussels last Tuesday. The NRA and many politicians support this status quo even as the number of guns and the number of homicides keep rising. While we must remain vigilant about the terrorist threat, we must all remember that 99 percent of the risk of violent death in the United States comes from the more than 300 million guns in the hands of ordinary Americans.
Curt Freed, M.D., Denver
This letter was published in the March 28 edition.
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