Consider these stats as provided by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence in the United States . In 2010, guns took the lives of 31,076 Americans in homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings. This is the equivalent of more than 85 deaths each day and more than three deaths each hour . 73,505 Americans were treated in hospital emergency departments for non-fatal gunshot wounds the same year. Firearms were the third-leading cause of injury-related deaths nationwide in 2010, following poisoning and motor vehicle accidents.

Between 1955 and 1975, the Vietnam War killed over 58,000 American soldiers – less than the number of civilians killed with guns in the U.S. in an average two-year period. In the first seven years of the U.S.-Iraq War, over 4,400 American soldiers were killed. Almost as many civilians are killed with guns in the US , however, every seven weeks .

Moreover, guns were used in 11,078 homicides in the U.S. in 2010, comprising almost 35% of all gun deaths, and over 68% of all homicides. On average, 33 gun homicides were committed each day for the years 2005-2010. And it's worth noting that regions and states with higher rates of gun ownership have significantly higher rates of homicide than states with lower rates of gun ownership.

In addition, firearms were used in 19,392 suicides in the U.S. in 2010, constituting almost 62% of all gun deaths. Over 50% of all suicides are committed with a firearm. On average, 49 gun suicides were committed each day for the years 2005-2010. A study of California handgun purchasers found that in the first year after the purchase of a handgun, suicide was the leading cause of death among the purchasers. Firearms were used in nearly 44% of suicide deaths among persons under age 25 in the year under review.

http://www.countercurrents.org/kamal270214.htm

We are in a small test-firing chamber built like a bank vault in the headquarters of Armatix, a small weapons developer in southern Germany. Karl-Friedrich Giebel, Armatix’s head of research and development, pulls a sleek black handgun out of a case, types a code into a black waterproof watch on his right wrist and shifts the gun to his right hand.

The red light on the back of the gun immediately turns green: ready to fire. When he transfers the .22-caliber pistol to his left hand—away from the watch, which communicates with electronic chips inside the gun—the light turns red.

“I can pull the trigger in red mode, but it won’t connect with the firing pin,” he explains, adding that the ip1 fires only when the watch is within 10 inches of the weapon. “It’s a lock inside the gun.”

Switching the gun back to his right hand, Giebel fires a round into an impact pad with a sharp crack. Though he looks nothing like James Bond, the weapon looks like something dreamed up for him by Q, the fictional R&D division head of Bond’s secret service. It’s called the iP1, and it recently became the first smart gun introduced in the U.S.

http://www.vocativ.com/usa/guns/nra-scared-smart-guns/

Almost a year ago, in the aftermath of the shootings in Newtown, Conn., a number of entertainment industry activists decried a vote that prevented the Senate from moving forward background check legislation. Some vowed to withhold support from Democrats who voted “No,” including Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) and Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), both of whom are in the midst of tough reelection races.

That was then, this is now.

On Wednesday evening, Cindy Horn and her husband, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn, are hosting a fund-raising event for Begich and Pryor at their home, and it has caught the attention of a collection of gun violence prevention groups.

In a letter sent to Cindy Horn on Wednesday afternoon, the groups urged her to cancel the fundraiser, or, in the alternative, that they instead raise funds for Senate candidates in tough races who voted for the background checks, including Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.).

http://variety.com/2014/biz/news/gun-control-groups-urge-cancellation-of-hollywood-fundraiser-for-mark-begich-and-mark-pryor-1201141065/

These are states with the most Wild West gun laws where you are most likely to encounter someone -- anyone -- with a gun: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana and Mississippi.

It is legal in these states for people with absolutely no training to walk around armed and to carry their guns openly in the streets.

It is legal in these states to bring loaded guns into gambling establishments, sporting events and restaurants that serve alcohol. It is legal in these states to carry weapons into stores and shopping malls, and in some cases even onto college campuses and into bars and houses of worship.

In all of these states, it is legal to shoot first and claim self-defense much the way George Zimmerman did with Trayvon Martin and hundreds of others have done in less publicized cases.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonard-steinhorn/armed-locked-loaded-gun-control_b_5002847.html

JACKSONVILLE, Florida -- A Florida judge is expected to rule in the next few days whether to accept The Stand Your Ground defense in the case of a woman who shot her own mother outside a convenience store in November 2011.

Shireeka Wilson, a mother of six, claims her mother, Valerie Rushing, attacked her at a Jacksonville gas station and was trying to kill her, First Coast News reported.

Surveillance video from T&S Food Market on West 45th Street shows Rushing enter the store looking for her daughter. When Wilson goes to her, Rushing can be seen attacking her. Wilson then goes back behind the counter of the store and grabs a gun.

The video shows Wilson go outside the store with her mother and shoot her.

http://blog.al.com/wire/2014/03/florida_woman_shoots_her_own_m.html

An action alert was sent to tens of thousands of gun control supporters across the commonwealth over the weekend: Five firearms-related bills designed to weaken the state's already porous gun laws will come before the state House Judiciary Committee today.

Because this is Pennsylvania -- a state where the gun lobby can pretty much dictate to our do-nothing lawmakers when they can and can't go to the bathroom -- groups like CeaseFirePA don't have the luxury of mincing words when it comes to motivating supporters to pressure their representatives in the Legislature to do the right thing.

The memo from Ron Conroy, CeaseFirePA's regional director for Western Pennsylvania, describes two of the most disturbing bills under consideration on March 18 this way:

"HB 921, which would eliminate Pennsylvania's background check system (PICS) -- a system that our state police swear by and that contains thousands of records, particularly mental health records and records of PFAs (protection from abuse) / domestic abuse, that are not included in the National Instant Check System (NICS).

http://www.post-gazette.com/opinion/tony-norman/2014/03/18/Why-can-t-gun-lovers-handle-rational-limits/stories/201403180075

Days after being threatened with eviction by the city of Durango, the Durango Gun Club, a nonprofit, is dropping its new requirement that each of its 700 members join the National Rifle Association.

In a letter from Durango Gun Club President John Malarsie delivered by hand to the city Wednesday, Malarsie writes that the club “will voluntarily suspend this membership requirement.”

City Manager Ron LeBlanc said, “We told them either to stop or get evicted – I think that’s pretty clear.”

Though the Durango Gun Club is private, it has leased its Florida Road indoor shooting range from the city since 1963 – at no charge. Its other facility, an outdoor range near Bodo Industrial Park, is on property leased from La Plata County for $1 a year.

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20140319/NEWS01/140319475/Gun-club-blinks-on-NRA-membership-

Police armed with assault rifles descended on a Maine man's home after members of a tree removal crew he'd told to clear off his property reported that he had a gun.

Turns out the "gun" the tree crew had seen on Michael Smith of Norridgewock was just a life-sized tattoo of a handgun on his stomach.

Smith, who works nights, was asleep when the tree crew contracted by a utility to trim branches near power lines, woke him up at about 10 a.m. Tuesday.

He went outside shirtless and yelled at the workers to leave. When he's not wearing a shirt, the tattoo looks like a gun tucked into his waistband.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/03/19/gun-tattoo-in-maine-prompts-heavy-police-response/

One evening in May 2012, Karl Johnson took apart his newly purchased .45-caliber Springfield pistol, intending to clean it.

Johnson, 24, had recently moved back home to Kennewick and was sitting on a bed in his basement next to his roommate, Bradly Slater, 22, playing a video game.

The men had met two years earlier as Marines in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. They became best friends and, after surviving convoy ambushes and roadside bombs, left war with plans to attend college together at Washington State University.

But that evening, Johnson forgot to remove the semi-automatic’s magazine before disassembling it. So when he pulled back the weapon’s slide, a bullet entered the chamber. Taking off the part required him to squeeze the trigger. And when he did, the bullet thundered out.

http://union-bulletin.com/news/2014/mar/17/unintentional-gun-related-injuries-upswing/

In the face of strong opposition from the powerful gun lobby, the White House is standing by President Barack Obama's pick for surgeon general, Indian American Vivek Murthy, an ardent supporter of Obama's healthcare law.

However, it is 'recalibrating' approach as White House Press Secretary Jay Carney put it, to get Murthy, 36, confirmed as "America's doctor" by the Democratic controlled Senate following the defeat of Debo Adegbile, Obama's nominee for the nation's top civil rights post.

If and when confirmed, Murthy would be the first Indian American and the youngest person to become the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the US

"We expect him to get confirmed ultimately and be one of the country's most powerful messengers on health and wellness," Carney said rejecting media reports that the White House was abandoning Murthy's nomination with some Democrats balking under pressure from the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA).

http://www.firstpost.com/world/white-house-stands-up-to-gun-lobby-vivek-murthy-to-be-surgeon-general-1442211.html