Seven people have died from vaping in the past few months and legislators have been quick to move towards banning flavored e-cigarettes, with states like Michigan and New York creating legislation to ban the products.
The use of e-cigarettes has become exponentially more popular in recent years, as usage of cigarettes has declined. The original idea and marketing of e-cigarettes was advertised as a healthier alternative to cigarettes. However, in this case, healthier doesn’t mean healthy.
Our question is this: why are states so quick to pass legislation in regards to e-cigarettes, but will not quickly pass legislation for stricter gun laws, or bans on firearms, when thousands of lives have been taken due to gun violence?
According to Gun Violence Archive, as of Sept. 17, 2019, there have been about 10,651 deaths due to guns in 2019 alone. Along with this, there have been 21,197 gun injuries so far this year.
Although the value of a life is incomparable, to us it makes more sense that national and state governments would respond to an issue that is costing the lives of thousands more quickly than an issue that has only cost seven lives.
It's absolutely hypocritical to say that we are concerned about keeping people safe from vapes when we don’t even take legislative action to keep those safe from getting shot in school.
It also should be taken into account that these two issues have one critical difference: one is a choice, while the other is an act of violence. An individual consciously purchases a vape product, knowing that it will possibly result in negative health effects. However, a victim of gun violence has little control over whether or not they will be shot.
If you want to focus on educating people on the harms of vaping, go ahead. People can prevent themselves from experiencing the negative health effects of vaping by just not vaping.
If you actually care about saving lives, look at what is actually killing a large number of people. There has not yet been efficient legislation to decrease casualties caused by gun violence. Guns are made to injure or kill (for reasons both good or bad); they don’t serve any other purpose.
Reevaluate our country’s legislative priorities. If we can act this quickly to ban vaping, we can do the same to take steps toward preventing mass shootings and suicides.