General Discussion

FarCenter

(19,429 posts)

37. A failure to properly categorize and evaluate risks leads to bad policy

Fri Feb 22, 2013, 02:47 PM

Feb 2013

By conflating all gun deaths together you tend to render the concept meaningless -- it is sort of like "weapons of mass destruction" being used to label everything from tear gas to thermonuclear bombs.

Actually, the risk of death by gunshot from an unfamiliar assailent is very low and declining almost everywhere in the country.

Media exaggeration of "gun deaths" and hyping of the very rare mass killings tends to raise fears that should not in fact exist. The fears engender knee-jerk legislative proposals that are likely to be ineffective, and they motivate another large audience to go out and buy more guns.

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Gun ownership vs. gun deaths, by state [View all] michigandem58 Feb 2013 OP

Correlation will be ignored and refuted with anecdotal excuses and stories. Sheepshank Feb 2013 #1

I can't figure out where Washington state falls, appears to be missing its dot. freshwest Feb 2013 #2

It's there. enlightenment Feb 2013 #29

I hate those kind of graphs. Percentages not that great for WA, although freshwest Feb 2013 #31

over what period of time? cali Feb 2013 #3

Are those rates increasing or decreasing? nt hack89 Feb 2013 #4

Include suicides? Crepuscular Feb 2013 #5

Are people who commit suicide any less dead? Major Nikon Feb 2013 #7

Suicides are not generally a danger to other people. FarCenter Feb 2013 #8

Let's hope you never get depressed when there's a gun handy. nt valerief Feb 2013 #11

Suicides inflict great damage on individuals and society No Vested Interest Feb 2013 #14

With youth- one suicide is sometimes followed by others loyalsister Feb 2013 #36

You Think, Sir, There Are No Consequences To Others Owing To Suicide? The Magistrate Feb 2013 #15

Suicides do not increase one's risk of having death or injury inflicted on them by someone else FarCenter Feb 2013 #25

That Is a Very Narrow View Of Risk, Sir The Magistrate Feb 2013 #30

A failure to properly categorize and evaluate risks leads to bad policy FarCenter Feb 2013 #37

Suicide Is A Major Risk Of Gun Ownership, Sir The Magistrate Feb 2013 #41

they still count as gun deaths treestar Feb 2013 #18

yea, fuck YOUR family & end it................ kooljerk666 Feb 2013 #21

This post was alerted on. By a vote of 3/3 it is allowed to stand. ohiosmith Feb 2013 #54

suicides Crepuscular Feb 2013 #56

I'm not sure what purposes that would serve other than obfuscation Major Nikon Feb 2013 #59

Guns kill better than pills Loudestlib Feb 2013 #17

that is irrelevant - as you are only counting gun related deaths in the first place. But srican69 Feb 2013 #22

removing suicide data will not invalidate the correlation ... let me explain srican69 Feb 2013 #20

I don't think a constant 70% ratio is correct FarCenter Feb 2013 #32

I do not. AtheistCrusader Feb 2013 #33

Wyoming and Montana are not hotbeds of anything. EOTE Feb 2013 #35

Distance to medical help Fla_Democrat Feb 2013 #45

Ahh, so the states with loads of guns ONLY have higher rates of gun deaths... EOTE Feb 2013 #46

No, was referencing those two states only Fla_Democrat Feb 2013 #48

Again, there are plenty of high gun violence states EOTE Feb 2013 #58

So, now Wyoming and Montana has morphed into Fla_Democrat Feb 2013 #61

So suicides don't count? Cali_Democrat Feb 2013 #49

OK, upon further research, the MJ chart isn't really useful cali Feb 2013 #6

In 2010 there were 7 murders in Vermont. Only 2 of those murders were committed with guns. cali Feb 2013 #9

Good attempt at obfuscation. baldguy Feb 2013 #26

that doesn't even make any sense, sweetie. cali Feb 2013 #42

I'm sure those folks who died accidentally from guns have so much relief that they weren't murdered. EOTE Feb 2013 #47

That's one datapoint. DanTex Feb 2013 #55

So relatively speaking, Minnesota has responsible gun users treestar Feb 2013 #10

30% ownership in Nevada seems like a helluva lot of gun owners to me! valerief Feb 2013 #12

I was thinking more along the lines of correlation treestar Feb 2013 #16

This message was self-deleted by its author guyton Feb 2013 #27

Thanks. I'm using Friday brains today. valerief Feb 2013 #53

You're not doing the math right. adieu Feb 2013 #38

can you provide a link to the article? DeadEyeDyck Feb 2013 #13

more gun ownership means more gun deaths right? samsingh Feb 2013 #19

The standard deviation seems to be wider than the underlying regression Recursion Feb 2013 #23

You're over-reading the graph adieu Feb 2013 #40

Most all the the red states are above the trend line Flagrante Feb 2013 #24

That's a hell of an interesting observation michigandem58 Feb 2013 #51

The right hand side of the chart is a powerful argument for mental health reform hack89 Feb 2013 #28

Murder rated have been declining, while suicide rates have been increasing FarCenter Feb 2013 #39

Exactly Blue_In_AK Feb 2013 #50

gun ownership melm00se Feb 2013 #34

Thank you for posting this! It shows clearly the correlation of gun deaths and gun ownership. DrewFlorida Feb 2013 #43

Be interesting to see each state by city/county. Fla_Democrat Feb 2013 #44

Indeed markgee Feb 2013 #52

Message auto-removed year of the cat Feb 2013 #57

Seems to be a distinct correlation between gun deaths per capital and red states, but indepat Feb 2013 #60