July 06, 2016 02:38 PM UTC

Colorado Crime Report Shows Guns are Still Killing People

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• by: Colorado Pols

Do guns kill people? Or do people (with guns) kill people?

The answer is: Yes.

As the Denver Post reports on the release Tuesday of the annual “Crime in Colorado” report:

Colorado residents were most likely to be killed in their homes by someone they knew who had a gun. [Pols emphasis] Of the 172 homicides last year, 70 percent of the people who died knew their killers whether they were acquaintances, spouses  or parents; 55 percent happened inside a residence; and 66 percent were shot to death.

Opponents of any sort of gun safety measures like to use the talking point, “Guns don’t kill people; people kill people” as though there is some sort of meaningful difference in the two statements. In the United States, you are as likely to be killed by a gun as you are to die in a car accident. These are statistical facts. Period.

Of course, guns are not the only way to kill people, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be treated as a significant health and safety risk. In Colorado, you are more likely to be murdered by a gun than by any other instrument of harm — including anvils. We understand the Second Amendment arguments surrounding firearms and the delicate political nature of these discussions. But as the latest crime report in Colorado demonstrates once again, suggesting that “guns” are not a very real and documented problem is just plain silly.