3/28/23

 Tuesday, March 28, 2023

In bed late, up at 7, 28℉, high of 42℉, wind WNW at 8 mph, gusts up to 19 mph, wind chill is 20℉.  Sunrise was at 6:39, sunset at 7:13. 12+32.

New Laptop I bit the bullet and bought a new MacBookAir with 16 gigs of memory and 1 terabyte of storage.  The old laptop goes to the basement office/studio area.

America/Moloch.  Leviticus 18:21 You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.

Gun deaths for children and teens in 2020 = 4,357.  The U.S. is the only country among its peers in which guns are the leading cause of death among children.  Motor vehicle accidents and cancer are the two most common causes of death for this age group in all other comparable countries.  Combining all child firearm deaths in the U.S. with those in other OECD countries with above median GDP and GDP per capita, the U.S. accounts for 97% of gun-related child deaths, despite representing 46% of the total population in these similarly large and wealthy countries.  Combined, the eleven other peer countries account for only 153 of the total 4,510 firearm deaths for children ages 1-19 years in these nations in 2020, and the U.S. accounts for the remainder.  Firearms account for 20% of all child deaths in the U.S., compared to an average of less than 2% of child deaths in similarly large and wealthy nations.  On a per capita basis, the firearm death rate among children in the U.S. is about 7 times the rate of Canada, the country with the second-highest child firearm death rate among similarly large and wealthy nations.  If firearm deaths in the U.S. occurred at rates seen in Canada, approximately 26,000 fewer children’s lives in the U.S. would have been lost since 2010 (an average of about 2,300 lives per year). This would have reduced the total number of child deaths from all causes in the U.S. by 12%.

After reaching a recent low (of 3.1 firearm deaths per 100,000 children) in 2013, the U.S. saw an 81% increase (to 5.6 firearm deaths per 100,000 children) by 2020, just seven years later.  The U.S. is the only country among its peers that has seen an increase in the rate of child firearm deaths in the last two decades (42% since 2000). All comparably large and wealthy countries have seen child firearm deaths fall since 2000. These peer nations had an average child firearm death rate of 0.7 per 100,000 children in the year 2000, falling 56% to 0.3 per 100,000 children in 2019.

Not all firearm deaths are a result of violent attacks. In the U.S., in 2020, 30% of child deaths by firearm were ruled suicides, and 5% were unintentional or undetermined accidents. However, the most common type of child firearm death is due to violent assault (65% of all child firearm deaths are assault).

The spike in 2020 child firearm deaths in the U.S. was primarily driven by an increase in gun assault deaths. The child firearm assault mortality rate reached a high in 2020 with a rate of 3.6 per 100,000, a 39% increase from the year before. The firearm suicide mortality rate among children in the U.S. increased 13% from 2019 to 2020, 31% since 2000, and 89% since the recent low in 2010.

Not only does the U.S. have by far the highest overall firearm death rate among children, the U.S. also has the highest rates of each type of child firearm deaths — suicides, assaults, and accident or undetermined intent — among similarly large and wealthy countries.

The U.S. also has a higher overall suicide rate (regardless of whether a firearm is involved) among peer nations. In the U.S., the overall child suicide rate is 3.6 per 100,000 children, and 1.7 per 100,000 children died by suicide from firearms. In comparable countries, on average, the overall child suicide rate is 2.8 per 100,000 children, and 0.2 per 100,000 children died by suicide from firearms. If the U.S. child firearm suicide rate was brought down to 0.2 per 100,000 children (the same as the average in peer countries), 1,100 fewer children would have died in 2020 alone 

Psalm 106:35-38

But they mingled with the nations

And learned their practices,

And served their idols,

Which became a snare to them.

They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons,

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And shed innocent blood,

The blood of their sons and their daughters,

Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan;

And the land was polluted with the blood.