5 ms·

>The US has several hundred murders per year. I agree with what you're saying but the US usually has more than 15,000 murders per year not several hundred.

bilbo0s 7y ago
I have no reason to doubt either of you, but let's suppose that we take your numbers as correct. Doesn't that still mean that more people are dying in car accidents than in homicides? It looks like a minimum of twice as many. (Might be a little fuzzy though because if someone is killed by someone who used a car as the murder weapon, does that get categorized as only a homicide? Only a motor vehicle fatality? Or both? I don't really know.)
- quaquaqua1 7y ago
  15,000 people are murdered in USA every year with guns alone. Other violent weapons increase this number. A small number are murdered by vehicles. Most vehicle deaths are just accidents. Many others die from opioid overdose and medical issues. Indeed, 2.8m people die yearly in USA.
- kenjackson 7y ago
  Why does it matter how many have died in car accidents? Are we saying that we don’t want to solve murders until their numbers match car deaths?
  - dsfyu404ed 7y ago
    >Why does it matter how many have died in car accidents? Perspective. How many people do you know. How many people do you know who died in car accidents. For most people that number is zero or one, maybe two. The average person gets in a car accident like once every 17yr (forget where I heard that) and fatal accidents are a tiny, tiny subset of that. They really are rare compared to how many people are in the US and how much driving those people do. Murders are far, far more rare than car accidents, practically nonexistent for people who don't make their living in the drug trade. The point is that they are statistically very rare events overall so increasing the risk of a big problem in the long term (by throwing away our restrictions on what government can and can't do to "find criminals") in order so solve a really tiny one doesn't seem wise.
    - kragen 7y ago
      By contrast, I know a number of people who have been raped by the police or whose family members have been murdered by the police. People in the US think that can't happen there. They are delusional.
- onemoresoop 7y ago
  Why do you compare accidents to homicides in the first place? You might as well include tobacco victims or people who die of old age
  - mlyle 7y ago
    Both accidents and homicide often kill people with significant life expectancy left. This has more impact than causes that kill people late in life. And it's worth thinking about what causes loss of life expectancy in our culture, to consider what problems deserve the most attention. Both homicide and car accidents are rather significant.
    - oh_sigh 7y ago
      The people who specialize in preventing mortality on car accidents and those who specialize in finding criminals don't overlap that much. There are many people in America - we don't need to just focus just on one thing.
- oh_sigh 7y ago
  The reason to doubt one user is because the number is clearly incorrect with 10 seconds of research.
kragen 7y ago
Thank you very much for the correction!
scarface74 7y ago
And most of those murders are committed by people they know. In other words, DNA evidence wouldn’t help since of course their DNA would be in the vicinity of the victim.

bilbo0s 7y ago

I have no reason to doubt either of you, but let's suppose that we take your numbers as correct. Doesn't that still mean that more people are dying in car accidents than in homicides? It looks like a minimum of twice as many. (Might be a little fuzzy though because if someone is killed by someone who used a car as the murder weapon, does that get categorized as only a homicide? Only a motor vehicle fatality? Or both? I don't really know.)

quaquaqua1 7y ago
15,000 people are murdered in USA every year with guns alone. Other violent weapons increase this number. A small number are murdered by vehicles. Most vehicle deaths are just accidents. Many others die from opioid overdose and medical issues. Indeed, 2.8m people die yearly in USA.
kenjackson 7y ago
Why does it matter how many have died in car accidents? Are we saying that we don’t want to solve murders until their numbers match car deaths?
- dsfyu404ed 7y ago
  >Why does it matter how many have died in car accidents? Perspective. How many people do you know. How many people do you know who died in car accidents. For most people that number is zero or one, maybe two. The average person gets in a car accident like once every 17yr (forget where I heard that) and fatal accidents are a tiny, tiny subset of that. They really are rare compared to how many people are in the US and how much driving those people do. Murders are far, far more rare than car accidents, practically nonexistent for people who don't make their living in the drug trade. The point is that they are statistically very rare events overall so increasing the risk of a big problem in the long term (by throwing away our restrictions on what government can and can't do to "find criminals") in order so solve a really tiny one doesn't seem wise.
  - kragen 7y ago
    By contrast, I know a number of people who have been raped by the police or whose family members have been murdered by the police. People in the US think that can't happen there. They are delusional.
onemoresoop 7y ago
Why do you compare accidents to homicides in the first place? You might as well include tobacco victims or people who die of old age
- mlyle 7y ago
  Both accidents and homicide often kill people with significant life expectancy left. This has more impact than causes that kill people late in life. And it's worth thinking about what causes loss of life expectancy in our culture, to consider what problems deserve the most attention. Both homicide and car accidents are rather significant.
  - oh_sigh 7y ago
    The people who specialize in preventing mortality on car accidents and those who specialize in finding criminals don't overlap that much. There are many people in America - we don't need to just focus just on one thing.
oh_sigh 7y ago
The reason to doubt one user is because the number is clearly incorrect with 10 seconds of research.

kragen 7y ago

Thank you very much for the correction!

scarface74 7y ago

And most of those murders are committed by people they know. In other words, DNA evidence wouldn’t help since of course their DNA would be in the vicinity of the victim.