Dear Editor,

What is the worst terrorist organization in the world?

ISIS, per the CIA. There is an estimated 80,000-100,000 members.

ISIS has killed about 2,100 people outside of Iraq and Syria

AL Qaeda/Taliban have about 200 to 1,000 core members, but possibly tens of thousands of followers. Between 1992 and 2008 they have killed about 4,500 people worldwide, including 9/11.

In the U.S., about 80 million people are members of the NRA (about 6 or 7 percent of the population). We kill about 15,000 ANNUALLY. More Americans have been killed by guns since 1968 than all of the wars the U.S. has been involved in.

Every four years we kill more people than we lost in seven years of Vietnam.

How does this connect to the NRA? This does not mean that NRA members are killers. How many NRA members commit crimes is irrelevant.

The guns are in circulation because of the NRA. Guns are poorly monitored because of the NRA. Guns are easy to buy because of the NRA. Guns are easy to lethally modify because of the NRA. Guns are used to kill people because of NRA lobbying against any measure that might protect people.

NRA membership of mostly older white men, may not be the worst killers, but their guns end up in the hands of killers. So the world’s largest terrorist organization, based on numbers, the NRA wins by a large number.

So the score for the last 25 years stands at: NRA: 375,000; Al Qaeda: 5,000; ISIS: 1,200

Just wanted to state the facts.

Marty Stitsel 
Sandpoint