by David Safier
2,405. That's the number of people who have been shot and killed since January 8, or as the Newsweek article puts it, "since Tucson."
All told, an estimated 2,405 Americans have been shot and killed since Tucson, adding to the grim toll of 400,000 felled by guns since Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated in 1968. (The estimate of gun murders and accidental deaths is based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.)
It's a long article about the possibilities of moving forward with gun regulations, as well as the stranglehold the NRA has on Congress, spending 41 times more than groups supporting more gun regulation.
One more quote, about Tombstone, 1881, vs. Tombstone, 2011:
When Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp shot up the O.K. Corral in 1881, civilians weren’t allowed to carry guns in town; a local ordinance required visitors to check their weapons at the Grand Hotel or the sheriff’s office. But today, Tombstone residents are free to pack concealed firearms pretty much wherever they want, without a permit. The state is now wilder than the Wild West.
Arizona. Wilder, and very possibly crazier, than the Wild West. Makes you proud, don't it?