There were a couple of articles in the press in the past few weeks that made for an interesting juxtaposition. The first one came a few weeks back, when the government announced that gun-related murders were down to 13,000 or so, and gun-related injuries were in the area of 85,000. The NRA (The world's only lobbying group for murderers) said they were pleased that gun murders had dropped (from a peak of some 17,500) and said that this showed that not only could Americans be trusted with guns, but that the vast number of guns doubtlessly had something to do with the low, low numbers. I infuriated gun afficionados by mentioning this on Usenet, under the admittedly provoking headline "Gun casualties 100,000: NRA cheers wildly, says it shows we need more guns".

Then the other day, there was a story about people getting killed by being locked in the trunks of cars. Without fanfare, the government had put into effect regulations mandating that all new cars will be manufactured with a safety latch on the inside of the trunk lid, so anyone caught inside need only press the lever to open the lid. It was further noted that the government was considering rules to make such devices available to retrofit on older vehicles. Ford Motor company announced that they were already in voluntary compliance with this proposed regulation, and it was expected that other car manufacturers would follow suit.

Any rational person not used to American customs would reasonably conclude that the fact that such non-controversial cooperation to remedy a situation like this would suggest that the problem was substantially worse than an industry whose product killed or injured 100,000 people a year and cost hundreds of billions in damage caused by violence and crime. If we can't get trigger locks on guns, what does it take to put lock triggers in the trunks of cars?

How many people get killed each year by this menace, anyway? 20,000? 50,000? A million? What does it take to get Congress, the President, and the manufacturers to all agree that this is a hazardous condition that is hurting our kids, and Something Must Be Done? How many deaths?

Nine.

Well, eight and a half if you want to be technical. They went back all the way to 1970, and found that there were about 250 deaths. Over a 29 year period. They also found that there were 1,150 "incidents". That doesn't necessarily mean anyone was hurt. An incident might just be that junior locked himself in the trunk, and Dad couldn't find the car keys, so they had to call the fire department. The end result was a bleary-eyed and slightly frightened kid, enormously relieved parents, and a group of firefighters beaming and sticking out their chests for the local TV news cameras while remembering not to toss disgusted looks at the family.

1,150 incidents over 29 years. Hell, you get that many people injured by guns over any given three-day weekend.

Nine fatalities a year. Guns can kill more than that at your local high school between first and second period.

The retrofits for cars cost more than all the safety measures proposed for guns - combined. Folks don't seem too disturbed about that.

Ford and the rest missed a bet. Instead of acknowledging the problem, and taking a proactive stance to help solve the problem, and by doing so, establishing that they are good corporate citizens who share a concern with their customers, they instead should have dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into a well-heeled pressure group (the National Truck Association) that would threaten Congress with electoral retaliation if they dared even discuss safety latches for their clients. They could then start a propaganda campaign, arguing that people who don't have the ability to lock hypothetical assailants in trunks were walking victims-to-be, and could then claim falsely that not only did the government have no right to regulate trunk latches, but were violating the constitutional rights of Americans by insisting on standards for lights and brakes, mandating that cars be driven on the right side of the road, and that registration was a plot to enslave us all. They could stir up the violent fringe nuts by inferring that anyone who thought that avoidable deaths and injuries was a bad thing was a brainless do-gooder, fronting for secretive dark forces that sought to destroy American car owners.

When the auto companies pass up an opportunity like that, you wonder how they made any profits in the first place.

Of course, they are distracted. After all, they have to figure out how Americans can face the 21^st century in cars that are bulletproofed but still light enough in weight to meet fuel-economy standards. Only commies want fuel-efficient cars, but what can you do?

In the meanwhile, we shouldn't worry about all those guns. As long as we all have rapid-fire, high-velocity weapons that we can fire into milling crowds in a blind panic whenever we hear a truck misfire, we'll be fine.

Honest. The NRA wouldn't lie to you about something like that.