One major reason why most gun deaths don’t involve the mass shootings that encourage a sense of fearful vulnerability, is that most U.S. gun deaths do not involve bad guys or malicious shootings. They mostly involve those who found a sure fire way to expedite their death in a moment of despair, as well as family accidental shooting deaths and quarrels, etc. So I think one reason we lose more to these causes than affluent nations who also have depressed folk, etc, is that our belief that having guns everywhere makes us safer, also makes it awful handy to commit suicide in a quick moment.
Here you go Qaz, let us know if you find interesting stuff.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/mass-shootings-in-america/?utm_term=.32017aaa9051
Any murder victim is tragic, I totally agree.
There have been some notable European massacres of course.
And about that 7x greater chance of getting murdered here, there are some distinctions to be made,
Check out the last paragraph, for instance: Just stuff to think about, I’m open to new info at any time so keep me posted.
A 2016 article by the American Journal of Medicine claims that homicide rates in the U.S. are 7 times higher than an average of other “high income countries.” This conclusion is based on a select list of OECD nations compiled in 2010. The lowest income nation on the list is Hungary, where per capita GDP is $28,000 per year. Turkey and Mexico did not make the cut because their per capita GDPs are respectively $25,000 and $19,000. Latvia and Estonia are not on this list, presumably because Latvia joined the OECD in 2016 and Estonia joined in December of 2010. Turkey, Estonia, and Latvia have murder rates comparable to those in the U.S. Mexico exceeds the U.S. by about 4 times. Most would agree that Mexico is not “high income” but the case for excluding these other three nations is not as clear cut.
If the list were to include all of Eastern Europe, Russian and Lithuania would surpass the U.S. in homicides per capita. Only when the U.S. is compared with affluent Western nations that were never under the iron curtain does its murder rate far exceed all other in the sample. The AJM attributes this grim statistic to high levels of gun ownership in the U.S., but the authors fail to point out that two of the safest nations in the world (Switzerland and Finland) rank 3rd and 4th in per capita gun ownership.
The U.S. has almost double the gun ownership rate of Finland and (according to a table in the AJM article) 12 times the gun homicide rate. Does this mean there is a “critical mass” for gun ownership where the murder rate increases exponentially? If this is true, why do heartland states with the highest levels of gun ownership have some of the lowest murder rates in the U.S.?
Read more: https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/04/why_it_is_misleading_to_compare_the_us_murder_rate_with_that_of_western_europe.html#ixzz5cS2hTdUQ
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From a practical stand point, I don’t want to own a gun. I have children and I would not want the risk of my children gaining access. I know there are safes, but kids are pretty clever. Anyhow, I also would never want to conceal or carry. I am human and prone to anger, just like everyone else. Who is to say that I might not rage over something and use it? Ok, so I doubt I ever would, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.
However, if I lived in a very high crime rate area, I might own one. It really depends on the situation and risk/benefit ratio.
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You also need to be very careful, that you document everything. In the case of police or civil lawsuits. One of my favorite TV channels is
Where they deal with murders - most foil. In one case, this couple lived in an apartment complex. And this weird or crazy guy, didn’t like their dog - when it barked. So he came down and broke open their door - with an ax. Then he threatened to kill the dog and the guy. But he had a gun and was video recording the whole event. Well, he had to shoot the guy three times. When police arrived, he put down the gun. But the video recording cleared him.
When I let go and trust God in surrender my frustrations and anger melt away. I use to get angry but I’ve learned to let things go. I have faith in the God who promises to work all my frustrating circumstances together for my good. Moreover, God says “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” I’ve surrendered under God’s mighty hand by letting Him have control. I let go and let God. By meditating on who God is letting go comes naturally. As they tell us in A.A. “We will intuitively know how to handle situations that use to baffle us.” There’s more serenity, peace, and love over here. The Bible says when you get angry don’t sin. But we are not to let the sun go down on our wrath. We are to let it go and trust God. Indeed, the beautiful fruits of the Spirit are:
Love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness, goodness, and self-control.
We love God because He first loved us. God opens up the eyes of our hearts to see and behold His beauty and be transformed by it. When I get angry I turn it over to God. The power to love is the confidence that God will take care of my future.
If we were to live we had to be free of anger. The grouch and the brainstorm were not for us. They may be the dubious luxury of normal men, but for alcoholics these things are poison. - Bill Wilson of Alcoholics Anonymous
Archie Bunker agrees with you. On television, Archie proclaimed a solution to the fact that armed bandits had been taking over airplanes. He said, “Just arm every passenger with a gun. Then they’ll think twice before trying to take over a plane!”
True, and he’s the only one…
Well maybe a few others :-
I don’t live or die on the following figures(250k to 2 million, really?), since every source I read varies widely. Still, I feel safer knowing that the simple showing of a firearm is enough to run off the greatest percentage of home invaders.
“Studies have indicated that Americans use firearms in self defense between ~250,000 to over 2 million times a year. One of the studies by Professor Kleck, et al, that gave us the figure of over 2 million showed that actual shootings were quite rare. On the order of less than 6% of incidents was a shot fired, even if it was a miss or a “warning shot”. This means criminals are more likely to abort their criminal actions when confronted by an armed homeowner or armed victim. If I recall correctly, only about 2% of incidents resulted in a fatality.”
some website
According to today’s BBC news…at least Canada is lending a hand…to help displaced workers, due to the US shutdown.
God save the Queen!
There is an online-available 180-page report on the Parkland school shootings. The link below is to an article that discusses the report.
The recommendations in the report - and it is nuanced and intelligent, nothing knee-jerk about it - concern mental health, guns, cyber-bullying, early detection of and reporting on troubled youth who exhibit certain characteristics; and the point that local policy-making is probably better than Federal mandates.
It covers a lot of ground and I look forward to reading more of the report.
http://thefederalist.com/2019/01/14/5-key-takeaways-parkland-school-shooting-report/
Partial table of contents:
Well, it does make folks feel better. Many carry firearms when they go into what they think as a hostile environment. Your point about suicide is well taken but we have to take into consideration the idea that is mental stability/ suicide is enough of a reason to strip the founding fathers understanding of the second amendment ?
Much of what was laid out in the Parkland Shooting report above could apply to suicides as well. A multi-layered approach seems like the most intelligent route.
I’m not sure I understand, can you elaborate?
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Sorry - if you look at the partial table of contents I posted above, the first 12 items are a multi-layered approach to prevention.
Who is the report by? I’m sorry who is the federalist?
I should have said who are.
The report is from the Federal Commission on School Safety, which was set up by Trump.
The Federalist is a conservative website.
Well, I found the Federalist info and site, but what about the ‘Federal Commission on School Safety’ part, fill me in bro.
Well dang it all, I thought I’d provided that. Senility, brother, is stalking me…
Here’s the link
Today there’s an interesting article, from the BBC news: