Mass shootings are awful, but what about fentanyl poisonings?
Why do poisoning deaths caused by illegal drugs get so little national news coverage compared to deaths caused by mass shootings?
A mass shooting gets national, wall-to-wall coverage. How many individual murders on the streets of Chicago and our other great cities get even an iota of national coverage?
How many illegal-drug poisoning deaths even get noticed?
Here are a few uncomfortable facts.
• In 2020, there were 19,384 gun murders in the US.
• In 2020 there were 615 “mass shootings” in the USA. These resulted in 521 deaths.
• If in 2020 the mass shootings caused 521 deaths, 18,863 Americans were murdered in shootings, other than mass shootings. 97.3% of the murder victims murdered with guns were not victims of mass shootings.
• In 2020, fentanyl killed 57,834 Americans! In 2021, fentanyl killed 71,238 Americans!
A. Gun Deaths in US in 2020
According to Pew Research, in 2020, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 45,222 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., according to the CDC.
That figure includes primarily gun (a) murders and (b) suicides. But it also includes three other, less common types of gun-related deaths.
• In 2020, 54% of all gun-related deaths were suicides; a total of 24,292 suicides.
• In 2020, 43% of all gun-related deaths were murders; a total of 19,384 murders.
• Of the remaining 2020 gun deaths (a) 535 were unintentional; (b) 611 involved law enforcement; and (c) 400 were from undetermined circumstances.
The 19,384 gun murders that took place in 2020 exceeded the previous peak of 18,253. However, while 2020 saw the highest total number of gun deaths in the U.S., this statistic does not take into account the nation’s growing population.
On a per capita basis, there were 13.6 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2020 – the highest rate since the mid-1990s, but still well below the peak of 16.3 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 1974.
That figure includes primarily gun (a) murders and (b) suicides. But it also includes three other, less common types of gun-related deaths.
• In 2020, 54% of all gun-related deaths were suicides; a total of 24,292 suicides.
• In 2020, 43% of all gun-related deaths were murders; a total of 19,384 murders.
• Of the remaining 2020 gun deaths (a) 535 were unintentional; (b) 611 involved law enforcement; and (c) 400 were from undetermined circumstances.
The 19,384 gun murders that took place in 2020 exceeded the previous peak of 18,253. However, while 2020 saw the highest total number of gun deaths in the U.S., this statistic does not take into account the nation’s growing population.
On a per capita basis, there were 13.6 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2020 – the highest rate since the mid-1990s, but still well below the peak of 16.3 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 1974.
B. Fentanyl, Meth and Cocaine Deaths in the US in 1920 and 1921
Provisional data from CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics indicate:
• Synthetic Opioids (fentanyl) accounted for 71,238 deaths in 2021; 57,834 deaths in 2020.
• Psychostimulants (meth) accounted for 32,856 deaths in 2021; 24,576 deaths in 2020.
• Cocaine caused 24,538 deaths in 2021; 19,927 in 2020.
• Prescription drugs caused 13,403 deaths in 2021; 13,722 in 2020.
Do not misunderstand me. 615 mass shootings, resulting in 521 Americans being murdered is awful. But the murder of 18,863 is far worse. And the 24,538 poisoning deaths from cocaine in 2021 are even worse. As are the 32,856 meth poisoning deaths in 2021.
But fentanyl killed 71,238 Americans in 2021!
The staggering number of 71,238 fentanyl deaths in 2021 is only 5530 deaths less than the 76,768 deaths caused by gun murders, and poisonings by meth and cocaine, combined!
And when you combine the fentanyl deaths with those occasioned by meth and cocaine, you find that 128,632 Americans were killed by these three illegal drugs, as opposed to 19,384 killed by gun murders. Six times as many Americans were killed by fentanyl, meth and cocaine, as were murdered by guns!
The US Customs and Border Patrol website tells us that the eight South Texas ports of entry, during the year beginning Oct. 1, 2020, and ending Sept. 30, 2021, saw a 1,066% increase in fentanyl seized, and a 98% increase in cocaine seized.
At those eight entry ports, from Brownsville to Del Rio, the CBP seized (a) 41,713 pounds of marijuana; (b) 8,592 pounds of cocaine; (b) 33,777 pounds of methamphetamine; (d) 1,215 pounds of heroin; (e) 588 pounds of fentanyl; (f) 463 weapons; and (g) 84,863 rounds of ammunition.
The DEA states that 2.2 pounds of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people! CDC says a 3-milligram dose of fentanyl, is enough to kill an average-sized adult male. Fentanyl, according to the CDC, is up to 100 times more potent than morphine and many times more potent than heroin. Drug dealers are mixing fentanyl with other drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, etc.
So, what’s my point?
Every time there is a mass shooting, President Biden and his minions are all over the television demanding gun control, and the banning of certain weapons — proposals that ignore the fact that most criminals use guns that are stolen, or purchased on the black market.
But nearly four times as many Americans are being killed by fentanyl as are being murdered by guns. When it comes to fentanyl, Mr. Biden is back in his basement. Where is Joe Biden’s action to stop fentanyl, cocaine, meth and heroin from flooding across our open southern border?
How many Americans have to die so that the Mexican drug cartels can become richer? More destructive? How hard is it for the cartels, in the absence of Mr. Trump’s proposed border wall, to run illegal drugs into the US between our ports of entry?
When it comes to doing deeds to protect American lives from Mexican drug cartel fentanyl, America appears to have a feckless, uncaring president.
Mr. Biden has said that the stopping transportation of fentanyl across our southern border is a matter of “national defense.” Time for his deeds to match his words. Talk is cheap.
Copyright 2022, John Donald O'Shea
First Published in the Moline Dispatch and Rock Island Argus on August 7, 2022
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