Baal requires lots of sacrifices

More American citizens were killed with guns in the eighteen-year period between 1979 and 1997 (651,697) than all servicemen and women killed in battle in all of the United States’ wars since 1775 (650,858).—America and Its Guns: A Theological Expose, page 52

<idle musing>
Ok, maybe it's Milcom/Molek who requires them, but you get the point. We don't think twice about the human cost of our love affair with shiny bullets. It's the cost of being "free"—free to be killed, free to kill others.

I'm reminded of the lyrics to a Randy Stonehill song from the 1970s: We are all like foolish puppets who desiring to be kings
Now lie pitifully crippled after cutting our own strings Too true...
</idle musing>