Whitten letter: Refugees

The news is full of opinions from politicians and reporters concerning the fear that ISIS terrorists will be entering the U.S. posing as Syrian refugees. Let’s get real and look at the historical data compiled by the CDC and U.S. State Department covering the years 2001 through 2013. During this 12-year period, there were a total of 3,380 U.S. citizens killed by acts of terrorism. This number includes both overseas and in the U.S. (the World Trade Center and Boston Marathon incidents). Now let’s compare that number to the number of U.S. citizens killed by acts of gun violence in the U.S. During this same 12-year period, there were 406,496 individuals killed by gun violence in the U.S. Given these statistics, your odds of being killed by an American nutjob (with an easily accessible gun) is over 100,000 times greater than being killed by Syrian refugee.

Ask yourself the following question, “Who do we really need to be afraid of?” If you can honestly look at yourself in the mirror and still say the Syrian refugees, then I really feel sorry for you and would honestly recommend that you seek counseling.

This story was originally published December 19, 2015 at 12:19 AM with the headline "Whitten letter: Refugees."