Official US statistics reveal America’s real emergencies
Re: “Logic used by gun-control advocates quite flawed”, Letters, February 23-24.
In my letter concerning emergencies facing the US that are far more important than building a border wall, I suggested that 40,000 gun deaths a year was an emergency. Mr M then replies that my logic on gun control is flawed due to the homicide statistics. I never mentioned homicides; it is gun deaths – and at a number far higher than the US forces have suffered in recent wars – that I feel deserves some attention.
Mr M then went on to ridicule my claim of the number of unconvicted prisoners in local jails. Once again Mr M made the error of substituting his words for the ones I had actually written. I never mentioned “prisoners incarcerated in the US” but instead called attention to the high number of people not yet convicted of any crime who find themselves in a jail without proper washing, cooking and sleeping facilities because these jails were never intended for the numbers and the longer stays that people now endure.
It seems that not only Trump has a reading and comprehension deficit; perhaps I should add education to the list of emergencies needing attention before wall building. If Mr M has any doubts about the above he could check the Centres for Disease Control site for gun deaths and the Bureau of Justice Statistics for local jail numbers and conditions.
Lungstib
