According to a Veterans Administration 2017 fact sheet, during the American Revolution — 1775-1783 — there were 4,435 deaths in battle.
The same sheet revealed that between 1812 and 1815, during the War of 1812, there were 2,260 battle-related deaths;
An estimated 1,000 deaths during the Indian wars;
The Mexican War ended with 1,733 deaths;
The Civil War (1861-1865) saw a combined 214,938 battle-related deaths of Confederate and Union soldiers;
The Spanish American War of 1898-1902 had 385 battle deaths while World War I left us with 53,402 battle fatalities;
In World War II that figure more than doubled, resulting in 291,557 battle deaths.
The death toll, as you would rightly assume, continued.
After the Korean War (1950-1953) the United States reported 33,739 deaths in battle;
There were likewise 47,434 deaths during the Vietnam War;
And “only” 148 battle deaths in Desert Shield and Desert Storm between 1990 and 1991.
Keep in mind these are deaths of service members who were considered engaged in battle.
The addition of other wartime deaths dramatically increases the numbers of men and women who died while serving their country during times of national and international conflict.
Also consider that these figures don’t factor in the number of deaths incurred by the United States during battles related to the ongoing War on Terror that has seemingly gone on in a variety of theaters.
According to the FBI, in 2017 there were 10,982 deaths involving firearms, 7,032 with handguns and 3,283 with weapons described as “other.”
The statistics do not describe which deaths were at the hands of law enforcement officers or a result of suicide.
However, according to the Gun Violence Archive, by October 2017 there were 317 mass shootings, down slightly from the 483 mass shootings of 2016, though there were “only” 112 and 71 fatalities respectively.
This snippet of statistics only includes fatalities for the two years mentioned. What is not included are the hundreds and hundreds of wounded. Another distinction between the two sets of lists is an obvious one.
On one hand you have numbers reflecting the numbers of men, then women, who died serving their country. Sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters who knew — although they probably hoped otherwise — that there was a chance they could be killed doing their job.
On the other hand we have numbers that reflect people who were simply going about their daily business. At no time did they sign up to put their life on the line simply for walking out the door and into a society that vehemently values its weapons and the right to own them.
Given that we don’t seem inclined as country to significantly change the gun laws, maybe it’s time we considered establishing a different sort of national memorial day and mourning.
