Gun violence frequently kills a small number of people. USA/USSR nuclear war is an extremely rare event (to the point where it never actually happened; but any

Gun violence frequently kills a small number of people. USA/USSR nuclear war is an extremely rare event (to the point where it never actually happened; but any reasonable reading of history recognizes that it could have happened), that kills a large number of people. Lets estimate between 70 and 160 million immediate deaths in the US. [0]. This would be between 35 and 80% of the population. Lets round this estimate to a flat 100 million. In 2013, there was about 100,000 firearm injuries (~34,000 of which were fatal. and 21,000 were suicide) [1] These two number are not directly comparable, because of population growth, and my considering non-fatal gun injuries but only immediately fatal nuclear injuries. However, both of these facts serve to make gun violence look relatively worse than nuclear violence. Even with these simplifications, our gun violence is equivalent to a nuclear war every 100 years. Readings of history may vary, but I doubt we could survive 100 years of cold war without starting a nuclear war. For simplicity, lets ignore population growth and just focus on the absolute numbers (which will make shootings look even worse, because the total population has increased). [0] http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/129966 http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/129966 [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_Sta...