Conservative commentator claims gun deaths are “worth it” in order to protect second amendment

Gun supporters in the US sure have some absurd arguments against gun control – from ‘more guns’ somehow being the solution to mass shootings, to the ludicrous suggestion it will cause people to eat dogs (yes, really) – but conservative commentator Charlie Kirk may have offered up the most outrageous one yet.

Kirk, who has previously made headlines for claiming white supremacy isn’t a thing in the US and that Democrats want Americans to live in “sexual anarchy”, has now said gun deaths are “worth it” in order for US citizens to have rights under the second amendment.

Addressing a crowd at an event run by Turning Point USA, the conservative student movement he founded, Kirk acknowledged arming citizens “comes with a price”, before comparing the risks of the right to bear arms with driving – because of course, the two are absolutely comparable.

“Driving comes with a price – 50,000 people die on the road every year. That’s a price. You get rid of driving, you’d have 50,000 less auto fatalities.

“But we have decided that the benefit of driving - speed, accessibility, mobility, having products, services - is worth the cost of 50,000 people dying on the road. So we need to be very clear, that we're not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen.

“You could significantly reduce them - through having more fathers in the home, by having more armed guards in front of schools,” he said.

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The commentator went on to add that people should have an “honest and clear, reductionist” approach to gun violence, but not a “utopian” one.

He continued: “You will never live in a society when you have an armed citizenry and you won't have a single gun death - that is nonsense, it's drivel. But … I think it's worth it.

“I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the second amendment to protect our other God-given rights.

“That is a prudent deal, it is rational. Nobody talks like this - they live in a complete alternate universe.”

It’s called living in the real world, Charlie.

Also, as one Twitter user pointed out, the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that the number of motor vehicle traffic deaths was a lot lower in 2021 compared to all deaths from firearms. The figures are 45,404 deaths and 48,830 deaths respectively.

Conversations around gun violence in America and controlling weapons has intensified after a mass shooter opened fire in a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee last week.

Six people – including three children - were killed by the 28-year-old shooter, who was shot dead by police.

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