False Equivalents.

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Shortly after the assassination of 59, and attempted assassination of over 500 people at a concert in Las Vegas someone posted this statistic.

1, 396,733 Americans have been killed in all the wars we’ve fought, while 1,516,863 have died by the use of a gun since 1968.  These numbers come from a January 13, 2013 PBS feature by Mark Shields, citing the Center for Disease Control (CDC) statistics and rated as true by Politifact.  But it reflects the common approach of making/creating an emotional argument by using a false equivalent.  When it was pointed out the automobile has killed 3,881,801 individuals people since its introduction in the USA, and that the automobile is far more dangerous than either the gun or war, people were upset with the suggestion that perhaps automobiles be banned.

If you are going to start a conversation with a false equivalent you don’t get to say another false equivalent isn’t relevant.  Apparently, logic carries very little weight with the liberal/progressive individuals.

To simplify things, I’ve done a Venn Diagram (who doesn’t love a Venn Diagram) to show how guns and cars fit on the War – Peace continuum.  I threw in the idea of diplomacy just to show how that tool of man works as well.

Maybe this will help people.