Suicide by Gun; the Most Dangerous Occupations; Gerrymandering; and "Surprise Medical Bills"

I. Suicide by Gun
"Of all the gun deaths in the United States, 60 percent are suicides." The latest government statistics reveal someone in America commits suicide every 13 minutes, more than 41,000 during 2013. "Women think about suicide more than men but men take their own lives nearly five times as often and when they do they most commonly use a firearm." [1]

For kids  aged 10 through 14, suicide is the third leading cause of death. Seventeen percent of high school students admit they seriously considered suicide in the previous 12 months. About 14 percent of them made a plan to do it and 8 percent actually attempted to kill themselves. For those aged 15 to 34, suicide is the second leading cause of death. [2]

II. The Most Dangerous Occupations
Although being a law enforcement officer is incessantly promoted by the media and is commonly accepted by the general public as the most dangerous job in the United States, the occupation doesn't make the list of the most dangerous occupations. Time magazine ranked the top five occupations as follows: 1.) Logger; 2.) Fishers and related fishing employee; 3.) Aircraft pilots and flight engineers; 4.) Roofers; and 5.) Refuse and recyclable material collectors. I've seen lists of the ten most dangerous jobs and being a law enforcement officer doesn't make those lists -- urban window washers and construction workers typically outrank police work. [3]

The average number of law enforcement officers killed annually in the line of duty is in the 50 to 60 range. Given that there are an estimated 990,000 law enforcement officers in the United States, there is a one in 16,500 chance that an officer will be killed each year. It is a tragedy when any officer is killed; however, we should not exaggerate the danger of the work.

III. Gerrymandering in Virginia
In May 2016, the U.S.Supreme Court left in place the ruling of a 3-judge panel that the Virginia GOP-led legislature was in error when it packed African American voters in the Hampton Roads 3rd congressional district, thereby making the surrounding districts safer for white GOP candidates. The Supreme Court left the lower court ruling in place on the grounds that the lawmakers who brought the suit didn't have standing. By so doing, the Supreme Court didn't take a position on the practice of gerrymandering.

IV. "Surprise Medical Bills"
An estimated one in three American adults with private health insurance falls victim every two years to what are known as "surprise medical bills," according to a 2015 survey by Consumer Reports. This can happen, for example, when a doctor with very minimal contact with a patient files a bill. [4]

Footnotes
[1] Diane Dimond, "Suicide by gun a huge U.S. problem," The Albuquerque Journal, April 23, 2016.

[2] Ibid.

[3] "Peril at work," Time, May 30, 2016.

[4] Haley Sweetland Edwards, "You only think you are covered," Time, March 14, 2016.