We Need More Jobs & Less Guns

by Errington C. Thompson, MD

If you sit back and listen to some of the constant nonsense that comes out of Washington, you would begin to believe that the biggest problem that is facing this country is debt. As a matter fact, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said exactly that on the Sunday morning talk shows.

“The biggest problem we have at the moment is spending and debt.” He went on to say, “Now, the question is what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting a country and that’s our spending addiction.”

Spending addiction? I’m sorry but I disagree with the Senate Minority Leader. I know the biggest problem that we have in this country is jobs. We simply need more jobs. The 2nd biggest problem that we have in this country is a living wage.

The new job numbers were released last Friday. In December, the American economy added 155,000 new jobs. The unemployment rate is now officially 7.8%. 155,000 jobs sounds like a lot. But we live in a country of 300 million people. There are 100,000 new Americans seeking a job every month. There are over 9 million people who’ve lost their jobs since the Great Recession and still haven’t found work.

Americans are still hurting. Sure, the Obama administration and the US economy have added millions of jobs over the last 2-3 years. This is great but we need more. We have to do better.

Currently, the unemployment rate for workers between the ages of 16-24 is 16.3%. The unemployment rate for Black Americans is 14%. The unemployment rate for Hispanic Americans is 9.6%. If you don’t have a college education and you’re under the age of 25 your job prospects are extremely dismal. Americans in this demographic have an unemployment rate of 20.3%.

Our economy is steadily growing. It is gaining momentum. We need for it to heat up and take off. If we going to get unemployment rates under 5%, in the near future, we need more from our government. Slashing government spending equals firing somebody. It means adding to the unemployment rate. It is critical for us, as Americans, to understand we need to get our economy moving. We need to get our unemployment rate down below 5%. We need to get our average real income to start rising again then, only then, will our economy is strong enough for us to begin to focus on cutting the deficit.

As a trauma surgeon, I feel it is my duty to switch gears and discuss just for second gun violence in the United States. Gun violence has been plaguing us for decades. Several weeks ago, a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut leaving 26 people were dead – 20 children and 6 adults.

The sadness and outrage that followed was similar to the reaction that we had to the shooting which injured Representative Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Arizona and left 6 others dead. The Virginia Tech shooting in which over 30 people were killed caused us once again to be sickened.

The sad thing about mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado is you have to ask which mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado? There was a shooting back in 1993 in which a gunman killed 4 people including the manager at a Chuck E. Cheese.

There was also the shooting a couple of months ago in which a gunman opened fire during the middle of a Batman movie. 12 people were killed and 58 were injured. Then, there was the mass shooting that happened just a couple days ago, in which, 3 people were killed then police had a standoff and a shootout with the gunman and the gunman was finally killed. All in Aurora, Colorado.

I just outlined a few of the mass shootings that happen in our country over the last several years. The real tragedy lies in those “ordinary” shootings. Since the Newtown shooting over 500 Americans have died secondary to gun violence (not including suicides). When a crazy fundamentalist, radical killed over 3000 Americans in the World Trade Center, we took action.

Last year, over 11,000 Americans died secondary to gun violence. We did nothing. Sure, if we knew someone personally who was killed we prayed, we cried and we mourned. Basically, we did nothing to prevent the next death, the next shooting.

I did my general surgery training in Shreveport, Louisiana. During my residency (the late 1980s and early 1990s), we took care of one or more gunshot wounds every night. There was gang violence. There was family violence. There was random acts of violence. There was accidental gun deaths. There were hunting gun deaths. Guns, guns and more guns.

I don’t pretend to know the answer. I know that I believe you have a right to protect yourself. I also believe that you and I have a right not to die. Personally, I believe that all guns must be registered. I do not believe that anyone should have their hands on a semiautomatic weapon unless they are in the military. I don’t know of any use for high-capacity magazines other than killing human beings. They should be outlawed.

Finally, hollowpoint bullets should only be sold to the military. Simply put, I’m sick and tired of mourning over gun deaths. We have to do something.