Like many, although I have been a little concerned by what he might do, so far Donald Trump has seemed to be more a source of amusement than anything else. A couple of weeks ago that stopped. I’m a bit of a stato so here’s some statistics that I gleaned from what seems to be credible sources (mostly US government or universities).
Total US population in 2015: 319,800,000
Total deaths in US in 2014: 2,626,418
Total deaths in US in 2014 from heart disease: 614,348
Total deaths in US from firearms in 2014: 33,599
Total deaths from homicide (2012): 8,897
Deaths from police related shooting: no official stats but Bureau of Justice suggest 930-1240 in 2015 (latter based on assumptions)
Total US deaths from terrorism 2004-2014: 97
Total US deaths from terrorism on US soil 2004-2014: 54 (or 4.9 per year)
Deaths from 9/11 attack: 2,902
Lets reframe this:
- the number of people in 2012 who died in gun related homicides was more three 9/11s.
- if 2015 is representative, on average around 20 times more people each year die from being shot by the police than being killed by terrorists.
- Americans are about 1800 times more likely to be shot by another American than killed by a terrorist.
- an American is 63,000 times more likely to die from heart disease than terrorism. That halves if they don’t leave the country.
I could do others, but I put them out highlight these not to diminish these terrible statistics, but to give some perspective. You could debate the effect of policy, but
The banning of people from six Muslim countries is a terrible act. As Bill McBride said more eloquently than I can “Mr. Trump’s executive order is un-American, not Christian, and hopefully unconstitutional. This is a shameful act and no good person can remain silent.”
To this I would add it will not make US citizens any safer, and is more likely to make them less so. Shame on you Mr Trump, and all those who support this.