{"id":2817,"date":"2019-08-04T15:33:39","date_gmt":"2019-08-04T19:33:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/?p=2817"},"modified":"2019-08-04T20:05:07","modified_gmt":"2019-08-05T00:05:07","slug":"cmon-were-better-than-this-pt-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/2817","title":{"rendered":"C&#8217;mon; we&#8217;re better than this!!!  Pt 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It is a sad state of affairs over the past week. &nbsp;Our \u201cshining city on a hill\u201d has been tarnished by gun violence\u2026.again.&nbsp; I wonder how many of the shootings were done by \u201cmen of faith.\u201d&nbsp; Religions vary; but most have the same core tenants.&nbsp; I will return to this later, in another part, while I\u2019m on my soapbox.&nbsp; For the record, I am a gun owner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Would you like to hear a few sobering facts on gun violence?&nbsp; Since 2019 started, just over 250 days ago\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>There have been 251 mass shootings (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/nation\/2019\/08\/03\/el-paso-walmart-shooting-250th-mass-shooting-this-year\/1913486001\/\">USA Today, 3 Aug 2019<\/a>).<\/li><li>As of August 4th, 2019; 272 people have been killed by mass shootings in this great land, and another 1047 wounded (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gunviolencearchive.org\/reports\/total-number-of-incidents\">Gun Violence Archive<\/a>) this year alone! Would you like more sobering news?&nbsp; So far this year, 8,734 human beings have been killed by gun violence, with an additional 17,309 human beings wounded by acts of gun violence.&nbsp; Of the 33,030-gun incidents this year (remember, we\u2019re only 2\/3 of the way through this year), only 1,196 (3.6%) have involved law enforcement, and of those, 182 have resulted in the loss of life (15.2%). &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li><li>By contrast, there have been 25 US servicemen and women killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.&nbsp; There have been 66 combat wounded. Combat figures found on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.icasualties.org\">icasualties.org<\/a>.<\/li><li>The US Gun homicide rate is 25 times, 25X, higher than other affluent countries.&nbsp; For our younger population (15 \u2013 24 years old), it is 49X higher! (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hsph.harvard.edu\/magazine\/magazine_article\/off-the-cuff-what-dont-we-know-about-the-causes-of-gun-violence-almost-everything\/\">Harvard School of Public Health<\/a>).<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what the H E double hockey sticks is going on here?\u00a0 America is the shining beacon of the West; how could this happen in this great land?\u00a0 How can one NOT feel safe in this country?\u00a0 To hold you over, take a gander at one of my former posts regarding the <a href=\"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/1912\">Charleston, SC shootings<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stay tuned for part 2, coming in the next couple of days&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is a sad state of affairs over the past week. &nbsp;Our \u201cshining city on a hill\u201d has been tarnished by gun violence\u2026.again.&nbsp; I wonder how many of the shootings were done by \u201cmen of faith.\u201d&nbsp; Religions vary; but most &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/2817\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,4,16],"tags":[50,80,91,82,59],"class_list":["post-2817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","category-politics","category-rants-raves","tag-america","tag-duty","tag-responsibilities","tag-rights","tag-security"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/word-cloud-3261119_960_720.png?fit=960%2C642&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":935,"url":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/935","url_meta":{"origin":2817,"position":0},"title":"American Gestapo","author":"DR D","date":"April 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"With the recent shootings, and the bombings in Boston, MA, there have been new calls for gun legislation, immigration reform and prosecuting the bombing suspects as terrorist.\u00a0 We (as a country) need to be very, very careful about the precedents we set.\u00a0 Look at what we got from our rush\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Rants &amp; Raves&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Rants &amp; Raves","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/category\/rants-raves"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":905,"url":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/905","url_meta":{"origin":2817,"position":1},"title":"My take on gun control..","author":"DR D","date":"April 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Good morning everyone!\u00a0 My cat and I were in a deep discussion yesterday regarding all the ranting going on over gun control. It is my stance that there are already enough laws on the books regarding gun control, and that, prior to establishing new laws; it would be a good\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/category\/politics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15097,"url":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/15097","url_meta":{"origin":2817,"position":2},"title":"Who\u2019s Responsible for the Political Violence??","author":"DR D","date":"September 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Strap in boys and girls, this is gonna be a long one!\u00a0 For the past few days, ok, the last week or so, I\u2019ve been in heavy discussion with my cat on the issue of free speech, or, in my opinion, the slippery slope of its erosion.\u00a0 I am of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/category\/politics"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Constitution, I read it for the Articles","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/20140812_130401-e1758501508584.jpg?fit=700%2C475&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/20140812_130401-e1758501508584.jpg?fit=700%2C475&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/20140812_130401-e1758501508584.jpg?fit=700%2C475&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/20140812_130401-e1758501508584.jpg?fit=700%2C475&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":940,"url":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/940","url_meta":{"origin":2817,"position":3},"title":"What\u2019s a Poor Congressman To Do?","author":"John Sweeney","date":"April 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"My congressman sent out an e-mail in which he was inexplicably whining about some backlash he\u2019s gotten from his constituents over some recent political decisions.\u00a0 He appeared genuinely perplexed at why we would be upset, and went on to wonder if compromise and \u201cgetting along\u201d would ever be possible in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;AoM&quot;","block_context":{"text":"AoM","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/category\/rants-raves\/aom"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15061,"url":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/15061","url_meta":{"origin":2817,"position":4},"title":"In-Decision 2024 \u2013 Presidential Election 2024","author":"DR D","date":"October 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Today, my cat was telling me to start writing again.\u00a0 So, to shut him up; I\u2019m stealing the name of a segment from the \u201cDaily Show,\u201d as I\u2019m sure you\u2019re aware, it sums up this year\u2019s election cycle quite nicely. As you all know, one of the primary purposes of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Politics&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/archives\/category\/politics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-11-05_08-28-25_109.jpg?fit=688%2C689&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-11-05_08-28-25_109.jpg?fit=688%2C689&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/2013-11-05_08-28-25_109.jpg?fit=688%2C689&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2817"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2828,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2817\/revisions\/2828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dansdigitaldive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}