Since you asked...

Jean Poole (wonderful blog, check it out here) asked this question in response to this post. The question was: "what kills more people? Guns or abortions?".

Jean, the answer is abortions.

Most thinking people won't be surprised by this but I thought I would back up the assertion with some actual statistics. You Liberal readers of my blog (both of you) can whine all you want but the numbers speak for themselves.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were a total of 30,694 firearms-related deaths in 2005 (the latest year for which statistics are available). Of these, 1,490 were under the age of 18 (the legal definition of a "child" in the US).

Let's look at motor vehicles by comparison: That same year, there were a total of 45,520 motor-vehicle-related deaths. Of these, 4,527 were under the age of 18. I did not drill down to see how many were passengers and how many were driving, but the curve DOES spike upward around age 15-16. So, 3 times as many children are killed by/in cars each year than by firearms.

Now let's look at worldwide numbers for firearms deaths. According to Amnesty International, whose numbers were the highest reported of all of the sites I dug through, there were between 350,000 and 500,000 firearms related deaths (including "conflict" or war-related deaths) in 2005.

By comparison, deaths in 2005 due to abortion, in the United States alone, were 820,151.

Put it another way: 173,753 people died in the United States in 2005 (all causes, natural and unnatural). 820,151 "people" died unborn due to a "choice".

If the desire is to prevent needless death by banning dangerous weapons, perhaps the most effective weapon of all to ban would be the abortion provider.

By most reasonable estimates, there are about 300,000,000 firearms in the United States today. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are about 633,000 physicians of all types in the US (as of 2005-2006), of which 5.5% are Ob/Gyns (or, 34,815). Abortion providers are an even smaller subset constituting 1,787 nationwide (Guttmacher Institute Data).

300,000,000 guns in the US caused 30,694 deaths, of which 1,490 were under age 18.
1,787 Abortion providers in the US caused 820,151 deaths, of which ALL were under 18.

It kind of makes you wonder what the priorities are of the people advocating abortion as "good public policy".

Pax,

Newbius