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The issues of abortion and Gay Marriage are important issues for me. When it comes to Gay Marriage, 70% of the African-American population opposes it and many are thinking of giving their vote to the candidate who wants a Federal Marriage Amendment even though they have voted for the other party in previous years. African-American Bishops of 'The Church of God in Christ' even issued a Proclamation. Compare this percentage to 59% of the rest of the population being against Gay Marriage.

But many people are not just concerned with these moral issues but also the moral issues that relate to gun control and poverty.

Do you believe that one candidate will really change the killings that occur because of guns?

When you look at the statistics for murder when either party has been in office, you will see that gun control has not completely eradicated murder. Both parties have had presidents in office who have not wanted guns to be outlawed but strict restrictions on them. There are strict gun control laws on the books that each state needs to enforce strictly.

To make gun control an issue for presidential elections is a non-issue for me because through the years we have seen that both parties in office have not kept guns off the streets.

If you are basing your vote on how each party intends to deal with gun control because of killings, the administration of each party has made a major difference on an overall spectrum. Killings do not stop with guns being prohibited on a larger scale. When there is a prohibition on guns, black markets will rise up and more killings will occur.

Let us not forget that alcohol was illegal years ago and prohibition of alcohol caused the deaths of many treasury agents and citizens. It became so bad as black markets rose up through the mob and mafia to sell alcohol to people. Eventually, prohibition had to be repealed. The argument can be made that alcohol should be banned again because of all the killings due to drunk driving, domestic abuse, alcoholism, etc. It is a moral issue to stop the killings but we do not see that argument being made by either party. There are laws that deal with the selling and buying of alcohol and how it is used but killings still occur. It was worse when prohibition existed.

It is the same way with gun control. A party can only do so much and it is up to the citizens not to abuse the right to bear arms. Guns are meant as a self-defense mechanism but accidents and killings do happen. This is in no way is making light of death.

The good news is gun deaths are at a lowest level in a century. According to National Safety Council, since 1993, firearm homicides are down 41 percent, and fatal firearm accidents have dropped 49 percent to the lowest levels since records have been kept, beginning in 1903.

So if anyone thinks that only the administration of one party will prevent killings from occurring while another party will allow it to continue is a misnomer.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the table below represents the number of firearms crimes since 1973-2002. The fourth row represents the number of murders each year due to the use of a firearm.

1973	361,141	172.1	13,072	6.2	241,088	114.9	106,981	51.0
1974	326,235	154.3	13,987	6.6	197,257	93.3	114,991	54.4
1975	342,495	160.7	13,496	6.3	208,307	97.7	120,693	56.6
1976	307,252	143.1	11,982	5.6	179,430	83.6	115,841	54.0
1977	301,590	139.4	11,950	5.5	168,418	77.9	121,222	56.0
1978	307,603	141.1	12,437	5.7	170,152	78.0	125,015	57.3
1979	340,202	154.6	13,582	6.2	185,352	84.2	141,269	64.2
1980	392,083	174.0	14,377	6.4	221,170	98.1	156,535	69.5
1981	396,197	172.9	14,052	6.1	230,226	100.5	151,918	66.3
1982	372,477	160.9	12,648	5.5	214,219	92.5	145,609	62.9
1983	330,419	141.2	11,258	4.8	183,581	78.5	135,580	57.9
1984	329,232	139.4	10,990	4.7	173,634	73.5	144,609	61.2
1985	340,942	142.8	11,141	4.7	175,748	73.6	154,052	64.5
1986	376,064	156.0	12,181	5.1	186,174	77.2	177,710	73.7
1987	365,709	150.3	11,879	4.9	170,841	70.2	182,989	75.2
1988	385,934	157.0	12,553	5.1	181,352	73.8	192,029	78.1
1989	410,039	165.2	13,416	5.4	192,006	77.3	204,618	82.4
1990	492,671	198.1	15,025	6.0	233,973	94.1	243,673	98.0
1991	548,667	217.6	16,376	6.5	274,404	108.8	257,887	102.3
1992	565,575	221.7	16,204	6.4	271,009	106.2	278,362	109.1
1993	581,697	225.5	17,048	6.6	279,738	108.5	284,910	110.5
1994	542,529	208.4	16,314	6.3	257,428	98.9	268,788	103.2
1995	504,421	192.0	14,686	5.6	238,023	90.6	251,712	95.8
1996	458,458	172.8	13,319	5.0	218,579	82.4	226,559	85.4
1997	414,530	154.9	12,346	4.6	197,686	73.9	204,498	76.4
1998	364,776	135.0	10,977	4.1	170,611	63.1	183,188	67.8
1999	338,535	124.1	10,128	3.7	163,458	59.9	164,949	60.5
2000	341,831	121.5	10,179	3.6	166,807	59.3	164,845	58.6
2001	354,754	124.3	11,106	3.9	177,627	62.3	166,021	58.2
2002	357,822	124.1	10,808	3.7	177,088	61.4	169,926	58.9

Of all the administrations since 1973, the party in power that was not against abortion, had the highest gun-related murders during the four year period of the 1996 administration. On the average, through the years since 1973, during the administration of the party that is not against abortion, 13,111.92 murders with guns occurred compared to 12,898.56 murders during the administration of the party that is against abortion. The difference is an average of 213.3611 killings.

I do not want you to think that each life lost is not precious because it is. But for people to believe that more killings occur when the party that opposes gay marriage and abortion is in office is wrong as statistics show. Granted that statistics are not 100% accurate but it gives a general idea.

If we look at the total statistics for gun related murders since 1973, it is 389,517. Even if we look at the total gun related crimes including murder, the number is 11,851,880. Of those murders, the highest murders occurred during the administration of the party that does not oppose abortion.

We have two issues that deal with the death of life. Among those two issues, since 1973, 40 million lives were slaughtered and the unborn could not defend themselves, compared to 389,517 murders. Both are indeed tragedies but the unborn cannot even defend themselves.

In good conscience if you know voting for one presidential candidate will result in the slaughter of millions of unborn compared to the thousands of lives lost to guns, would you still support that presidential candidate?

As stated before, the party that has been opposed to abortion has had the lowest gun-related deaths during their administration than the party that has been in favor of abortion. This confirms to me that when we fight for the unborn, the other things will follow.

Voting for the presidential candidate that will try to protect the unborn with their actions is who I want for president.

PART V