I sincerely hope that Andrew Taban and Rick Barker had an enlightening coffee date! In his June 3 opinion piece, Andrew laments the loss of so many Americans to fight for and preserve this nation. He questions if they knew they died for a “nation so fractured that we can barely agree on basic facts.” He then calls Moms for Liberty an “absurd spectacle” and considers drag queens normal and acceptable.
But in the next paragraph, he states that the leading cause of deaths for children is firearms. Period.
So let’s agree on some basic facts: According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the rate of deaths of children by firearms is 12.8 per million (2023), and according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety the number of children (0-13) who died in auto accidents is 16.9 per million (2023).
This does not include deaths by cancer, drownings or the many other heartbreaking ways that our children may die.
I agree that many, if not most, firearm deaths are preventable. Also, many more children survive auto accidents than gunshot wounds.
But if our nation is going to become less polarized, let’s begin with facts before opinions.
Jim Scott
Santa Clarita
