[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by tw

Again, the bottom line. Americans are routinely firing weapons in Iraq because Iraq remains that dangerous -

American troops routinely fire upon anything they consider a threat -

I was sent this semi-anonymously. It doesn't count the shots you're talking about but it does help understand the big picture.

According to http://www.casualties.org, there have been 88 hostile fire deaths caused by firearms since the beginning of hostilities in Iraq. The remainder of coalition deaths has been due to explosives or accidents.

What does this mean? If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in theater during the last 22 months, that gives a firearm death rate of 55 per 100,000.

The rate in DC is 80.6 per 100,000. That means that you are more likely to be shot and killed in our Nation's Capitol, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, than you are in Iraq.