No stranger to annoying conservatives, Neil deGrasse Tyson took to Twitter to make an airtight argument for gun violence prevention using a few simple statistics.
As Salon reported last week, “Famed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has a particularly entertaining history of publicly irking conservatives. So it wasn’t surprising when Tyson yesterday took aim at gun violence in America. And it was even less surprising that conservatives responded in characteristically cuckoo-bananas fashion.“
Tyson posted three tweets last week, providing 6 simple statistics regarding gun violence:
1.4 Million: Americans who died in all Wars fought since 1776.
1.4 Million: Americans who died via household Guns since 1968
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 9, 2015
400,000: Americans who died fighting in World War II.
400,000: Americans who died by household Firearms since 2001
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 9, 2015
3,400: Americans who died by Terrorism since 2001
3,400: Americans who died by household Firearms since five weeks ago.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) November 9, 2015
Enraged gun-rights proponents quickly fired back at the famous astrophysicist, comparing gun violence to auto accidents, alcohol-related deaths, Obamacare and a variety of other causes of death.
One critic cited obesity:
@neiltyson 300,000 Americans die every year from obesity. https://t.co/XrrUKATuXa
— Aoleon Martian Girl (@aoleontmg) November 9, 2015
As Raw Story reports, “They cited easily debunked statistics that appear to show more hammer-related deaths in 2011 than gun deaths — although the widely shared chart includes only 323 rifle-related killings and leaves out 356 shotgun-related deaths and a whopping 6,220 handgun-related deaths that year.”
https://twitter.com/AdamStiles7/status/663928191480786944
Some of them compared gun deaths to abortion:
@neiltyson @TaraHill5 Millions of babies killed via abortion. #priorities
— TruthForAmerica (@phfreedom) November 10, 2015
Some simply lashed out:
.@neiltyson What the fuck is a "household firearm" and also how much is Everytown paying you to tweet this horse shit?
— neontaster (@neontaster) November 9, 2015
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