You Favor Gun Control? So You're a Prohibitionist eh?

My son Andrew made an interesting observation about deaths in the USA.  He noted that deaths from alcohol substantially outnumber deaths from firearms.

“Interesting point.” I said.  I began to investigate, and this is what I found:

"Excessive alcohol use is a leading cause of preventable death. This dangerous behavior accounted for approximately 88,000 deaths per year from 2006–2010, and accounted for 1 in 10 deaths among working-age adults aged 20–64 years. Excessive alcohol use shortened the lives of those who died by about 30 years."  http://www.cdc.gov/features/alcohol-deaths

"Car crashes killed 33,561 people in 2012, the most recent year for which data is available, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Firearms killed 32,251 people in the United States in 2011, the most recent year for which the Centers for Disease Control has data."  http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/americas-top-killing-machine/384440/

(We won't even mention the 480,000 deaths annually (including deaths from secondhand smoke) from smoking (http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/health_effects/tobacco_related_mortality/) and the quarter million people who die annually from smokeless tobacco.)

250,000 people die each year from using smokeless tobacco, researchers at the University of York have concluded - See more at: http://www.stonehearthnewsletters.com/250000-people-die-each-year-from-using-smokeless-tobacco-researchers-at-the-university-of-york-have-concluded/smokeless-tobacco/#sthash.7xYbqD8x.5MluIxmS.dpuf

Although auto deaths roughly equal firearm deaths, we would NOT argue against the use of cars because automobile travel is highly utilitarian, whereas firearms use is NOT utilitarian. Firearms possession is mostly for hobby, hunting or self defense- hardly necessities.

Fair enough, but what about alcohol?  Is alcohol use utilitarian or mostly  recreational- not really very much different from firearms ownership?

Sooo, it looks like to me that all of those interested in protecting American lives from guns, ought FIRST to protect lives from alcohol.

But most alcohol death is self-inflicted, whereas most gun deaths are… wait a lot of those are self-inflicted too.  Guns kill others…but so do DUI drivers.

OK, when does the big PROHIBITION of alcohol campaign begin??