Death in America - The Rest of the Story - from Guns to Hospitals

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Although it is clearly a distasteful subject, it is important people understand the truth behind the debates on such things as gun control, terrorism, homicides and other deaths in the USA.  If not, the newspaper headlines would leave you believing we are back in the wild west.

From the tragic Newtown murders to the Boston marathon, headlines and sound bites paint a dismal picture of being safe in America.  You might think you need a police escort to get our kids to school or go to the grocery store.  But is that really the case?

Here are several categories of deaths in America based on multiple public data bases.  I am extrapolating all categories to cover the years from September 11, 2001 until September 11, 2013, a period of 12 years.

Total Deaths in America - 9/11/01 - 9/11/13

Terrorism

Terrorism                                                           19

Homicides

Firearm homicides                                132,000

Firearm suicides                                    232,800

Murder by suffocation                              6,528

Murder by fire                                            1,068

Murder by poisoning                                   950

Murder by drowning                                   625

Medical

Heart disease                                       7,825,092

Cancer                                                     6,711,744

Stroke                                                     1,746,948

Chronic Lower Respiratory                1,571,196

Accidents                                              1,404,000

Bedsores                                               1,380,000

Hospital Infections                             1,056,000

Malnutrition                                        1,305,600

Prescription overdose                        1,272,000

Medical malpractice                           1,176,000

Outpatient malpractice                     2,388,000

Unnecessary procedures                      945,632

Surgery Related                                    384,000

Other Causes

Alcohol abuse                                         960,000

Illegal drugs                                             113,148

*Marijuana abuse                                              0

Iraq and Afghanistan wars                        6,737

Automobiles                                          460,000

*Abortions                                        14,400,000

*Marijuana overdose alone has not been a cause of death

**Note abortions legal under current law

Remember these are the total deaths in the 12 years since 9-11.  Consider the numbers and then consider the news media coverage of deaths in America.  No matter how you add it up, deaths from terrorism and urban gun deaths, which dominate all media, are far exceeded by multiple forms of medical malpractice and legal drug overdoses.

In fact of the 25 death or life termination categories only seven have fewer deaths than using a firearm to commit a homicide and one is terrorism with only 19 deaths in 12 years, the fewest of any category.

Ironically, there are seventeen categories with more deaths and medical related deaths far exceed those from firearm homicides and terrorism.  Note that during the 12 year period the US has spent more than a trillion dollars on Homeland Security and trillions more fighting wars in support of counter-terrorism.

The other interesting fact is the government actually admits that there has never been a death from a marijuana overdose.  Other legal and illegal drugs or alcohol are always present in victims.

Clearly media coverage is distorted and heavily favors terrorism (the Boston Marathon) and urban homicide (Trevor Martin-Zimmerman case) in order to make sure the news continues to keep the spotlight on the lucrative and ratings driven terrorism and murder categories.

With the overwhelming number of deaths related to medical malpractice, prescription drug overdose and related categories of unnecessary deaths, the absence of media and political focus is blatantly obvious.

Wake up America!  Your greatest risk of being killed unnecessarily in America comes from your doctors, hospitals and medical clinics, not guns, terrorists, illegal drugs or even wars.

So how tuned in are you to the truth?  Here is the latest Gallup poll on the most trusted professions in America.  Note the top three are all medical.  Yet the very same group of trusted categories dominate the cause of death statistics.

Hummmm.

Honesty/Ethics in Professions

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