With all the talk, debate and arguments around guns and gun deaths, I want to be serious for a moment. I heard a Congress person say that there is nothing to be done. In other words, this elected legislator has conceded defeat. Just given up, waved the white flag, rolled over, cashed in the chips…you can apply your own analogy or metaphor to this outrageous statement.

According to the Congress person the problem is “mental illness” rather than millions of firearms. The AR-15 doesn’t kill innocents. It’s the mentally ill AR-15 wielder.

Thinking through this logic I did some checking and here’s what I found.

In 2022, the US reported just over 66 million cases of mental illness. In the same year, 2022, the US suffered through 40,000 gun deaths.

In Europe over the same time period, the EU reported over 150 million cases of mental illness but just 5,800 gun deaths.

I’ll do the math for you. Europe had 84 million MORE cases of mental illness but 34,200 LESS cases of gun deaths.

Following the Congress person’s logic, Europe should be drowning in gun deaths but instead it’s the US that has to be shocked week after week by rising numbers of citizens being literally gunned down on the streets, in the schools and in places of worship.

So what does the US have much more of than Europe and in overwhelming abundance? Guns, guns, guns, and yes, even more guns.

So I ask you: Is mental illness the problem or is it guns?

I trust your logic in coming to the right answer.