mdiehl
Posts: 5998
Joined: 10/21/2000 Status: offline
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quote:
Imagine, if you will, standing in a field and firing a high velocity rifle...that bullet, if it doesn't hit something, will travel quite far. For an ordinary civilian to determine whether it's safe to fire that weapon or not seems dangerous. Not really dangerous in general. Fewer people are shot hunting or just target shooting in the US each year than die of injuries sustained in athletic events. Most firearms deaths in the US, while homicides (meaning one person killed someone else) are legal homicides -- self defense by a civilian or policeman, and many of the rest are suicides (but the US suicide rate is not greater than other western nations). Most of the illegal homicides (homicide as a criminal act) occur when one person with a prior criminal record kills some other person with a prior criminal record. Of which I can find nothing to complaint about. That leaves a very low accidental homicide rate (which is regrettable), the intermittent spree shooter, and the intermittent innocent cut down in a gangbang drive-by. But if you count those as undesirable deaths, one must also note that the death by automobile accident in most western nations is higher than the undesirable death by firearm rate. So it's really no big deal. Bottom line in the US is that if you don't want to get shot, then (1) don't go waving a gun at anyone, (2) don't try to rob or assault someone or break into a home, (3) don't engage in criminal activity especially those that generate lots of cash and make you a desirable target for other criminals, and (4) make sure all your firearms are safely stored.
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Show me a fellow who rejects statistical analysis a priori and I'll show you a fellow who has no knowledge of statistics. Didn't we have this conversation already?
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