Insights · July 9th, 2013
Thinking about the billions spent on security since 9/11 in America, including the recent revelations about PRISM and other data surveillance activities, I came across these interesting numbers from the Atlantic…
Since 9/11, the Brady Campaign tells us, there have been an estimated 334,168 gun deaths* in the United States, a figure that includes homicides, suicides, and unintentional shooting deaths. The total is 100 times larger than the toll of September 11, 2001.
And the Economist helpfully points out that the odds of an American being killed in a terrorist attack have been about 1 in 20 million since 9/11.
Our priorities are strange. We will spend a lot to prevent the unlikely, but little to deal with the obvious.
h/t to Digby
