Stupidity: More Dangerous Than Guns

"I've heard of people being killed playing ping-pong -- ping-pongs are more dangerous than guns.  Flat-screen TVs are injuring more kids today than anything."  Texas Rep. Kyle Kacal, a Republican.

First off, that this guy's a moron goes without saying.  But just to get it out of the way:

Number of children killed by falling 10's in the last decade - 169
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-01-16/news/ct-met-tv-fall-death-0117-20120117_1_chicago-girl-cranial-cerebral-injuries-tvs

Number of children and teens killed by gunshot the last 30 years - 116,385
http://www.childrensdefense.org/child-research-data-publications/data/protect-children-not-guns-2012.pdf

Total deaths from ping pong over a decade (the only data available is for Germany) -7

http://www.medicine.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/risk/sports.html

So the point of this post isn't really that this guy is a moron, its that he's a US Congressman and a moron and willing to say stuff this stupid in public.  This is the kind of idiocy that   prevents common sense regulation of guns and leads to many of the ~30,000 firearm deaths per year in the United States.  In any sane society, saying something this stupid about an issue this important just days after the tragedy in Newtown would end your political career.  Not in today's Republican Party though.