The United States Has a Gun Problem

In 2022, there were 48,204 gun deaths in the United States, 132/day. Of these, 27,032 were suicides, 19,651 homicides, 463 unintentional and 643 fatal shootings by law enforcement.

White males have by far the highest rate of suicide by gun while black males are much more likely to be victims of homicide. The U.S. has 33 times the rate of firearm homicide as Australia.

Among 15- to 24-year-olds, homicide is the second leading cause of death (following unintentional injuries) and suicide is third. For 25- to 34-year-olds, suicide is second after unintentional injuries and homicide third.

Worst is what we do to our children. Excluding infants, gun violence accounts for 15% of deaths among those under age 20. The firearm death rate for children 1-19 in the U.S. is 29 times that of comparable large wealthy countries.

Barring a dramatic turn-around at the Supreme Court, we are not going to get rid of guns, but that does not mean we are helpless to change this story.

Much of the laws and rules governing gun ownership and safety are still set at the state level, and this has given us “natural experiments,” as we can observe what happens in states with differing policies.

State laws vary across a variety of issues. The leading areas where states can be more or less strict include universal background checks, minimum age limits for gun purchase, waiting periods, child access rules, concealed carry and “stand your ground” laws.

Of these, three had dramatic effects on lowering gun homicides and suicides: requiring universal background checks, forbidding concealed carry and not having “stand your ground” as a legitimate excuse for firing a gun. States imposing these rules had 70-90% fewer firearm deaths than states which took the opposite position.

Children benefit from stricter gun laws. In 2010 the Supreme Court allowed states to set their own firearm rules. Researchers ranked all the U.S. states into most permissive (31 states), permissive (11) and strict (8) and compared what happened to pediatric gun death rates ten years later. In the states with the most permissive laws, death rates of children by firearms went up by roughly 50% while in the states with the strictest laws, pediatric deaths fell by about 20%.

"Red flag" laws—also known as Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs)—allow courts to temporarily remove firearms from individuals deemed to be a threat to themselves or others. These have been shown to clearly reduce the risk of death by suicide, though their effect on homicide is less proven.

If you value your life, and the lives of your children and grandchildren, demand that your state legislatures enact sensible gun restrictions.


Prescription for Bankruptcy. Buy the book on Amazon

mRNA vaccines - are they dangerous?

RFK Jr, our anti-science Secretary of Health and Human Services, has declared that new vaccines should be developed without using mRNA technology and has cast doubt on the safety of mRNA.

What do we know about this technology?

mRNA occurs normally in our bodies. It carries instructions from our DNA out to the cells where these “blueprints” are used to make proteins. mRNA is inherently short-lived. It delivers instructions and then is programmed to die. It typically lasts a few days at most.

The traditional way to make vaccines is to grow viruses in culture, break them apart, and use the fragments of viral proteins to make vaccines. When these are injected, the body’s immune system recognizes them as foreign and develops an immune response that ramps up if the virus later attacks us.

When mRNA is used to create vaccines, mRNA carries instructions into our cells to build proteins that form part of a virus, such as the spike protein of the Covid virus. The body’s cells make these proteins, which the body recognizes as foreign and makes antibodies against them. These antibodies are now prepared to fight off the virus should we encounter it.

The big advantage of using mRNA to create vaccines over the traditional method is that vaccines can be made much more quickly, typically within weeks of a new virus being identified. The old method, growing viruses in culture and using disrupted virus particles to stimulate the immune system, typically took months.

Should we experience another pandemic, mRNA vaccines will save countless lives.

Are these vaccines dangerous?

They do NOT change our DNA. mRNA makes a one-way trip and does not enter the nucleus or change our DNA.

Yes, people can get muscle aches and fever, but this can happen with any vaccine – it is part of the body’s response to a foreign protein.

There were cases of heart muscle inflammation after the Covid vaccination, but there were many more in people who got infected with Covid.

It has been over four years since the mRNA vaccines were introduced, and there have been no new safety concerns.

Do not let fear-mongering persuade you. The vaccines are safe and could save your life.


Prescription for Bankruptcy. Buy the book on Amazon

Radon - what you don't know can hurt you

Radon is a breakdown product of uranium, which is found naturally in soil and rocks everywhere. Radon is a gas, and it is odorless, colorless and tasteless.

Radon can seep into your house from the ground on which it is built and, particularly if your house is tightly-sealed, can build up.

Some amount of radon is unavoidable, but levels above 4 picocuries per liter are considered a cause of lung cancer. Radon is the number one cause of lung cancer in non-smokers, and the combination of smoking and radon is particularly lethal.

There is natural variation in radon levels depending on geography. You can Google “EPA radon zones” to find a map and spreadsheet that will tell you to the county level how likely you are to be at a high level of radon.

Some states, including Massachusetts, mandate radon tests before a house is sold, but most states do not.

Testing is easy. You can get a test kit at the hardware store or on-line. You leave the kit in a central part of your basement (or ground floor if you have no basement) and mail it in.

If the test comes back at 4 or higher, you should take action.

While there are some helpful things you can do yourself, such as sealing cracks in the basement floor or walls and improving the ventilation in your home, major improvement will require professional help.

Seek a certified radon mitigator – certified by NRPP (National Radon Proficiency Program) or NRSB (National Radon Safety Board). The typical solution involves a pipe system running from beneath the foundation that draws air through an external pipe to above the roof using a fan.

Remediation does not come cheap: it will probably cost between $1000 and $2500. Add to that the cost of electricity to run a fan continuously.

So, as well as having smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in your home, one more thing to add. Forewarned is forearmed.


Prescription for Bankruptcy. Buy the book on Amazon