The United States kills far more of its own people than have ever been killed by other states. We knew the number killed in the US Civil War is roughly equal to the Americans killed in all external wars. But the crucial figures are now. The number of American who have died in domestic US gun-caused deaths this century is greater than the number of Americans killed in World War Two AND the Vietnam War AND the Afghan and Iraq wars. Americans are wiping themselves out. You could say we knew America was stupid, but we didn’t know it was that stupid. To put it another way, the US spends something like $1 trillion on defence protecting itself against the big wide world when far more of the killing is done by its own people. It is like driving around on the motorway in a tank to protect yourself, when you are going to be shot by your mate in the back seat. The US has had something like 470,000 gun-deaths since 2000 AD.

We know Trump and the US gun lobbies have come up with an answer. To protect yourself against guns you need more guns. Everyone knows this is stupid; it is embarrassing to bring it up. The extra-stupid bit is the economics of the thing. It is like flushing exploding money down the toilet. There are about 300 million guns in the US, and each year they buy more – presumably guns in bikinis or ones that fire round corners or with an “I will not shoot myself in the foot safety device”. Lots of Americans have more guns than they can put on each finger. (Don’t y’all try it because it is a bit dangerous.) So US citizens spend about $15-20 bn a year on 10-12 million new guns, ammo and “Do not aim it here” hats, and then fork out another $230 billion on hospital/police/it has gone wrong costs. That works out at about 1.5% of GDP to be added to the 3.5% it spends on Defence, or Attack, whatever you like to call the military thing. So, America flushes a trillion and a half exploding dollars down the loo and finishes up with more dead people than ‘most anywhere on earth, and Trump thinks it’s great.

Of course, Cheney was stupid because he shot his mate in the face, but Trump is more stupid, because he is not even being paid by Haliburton to keep a war going. Trump is worse because his voters are killing themselves or each other. He’s killing his own voters. He didn’t have much of a margin at the last election and they are dying off fast. Of course, they could come to their senses and say, “Why is Trump encouraging us to buy guns and kill ourselves and flush exploding dollars down the loo?” and decide they like Obama, but they are probably too stupid for that.