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Have we become too paranoid about mass shootings?
- coldtea 6y agoNo, probably too complacent. Those are just not an issue in most civilized countries, or at worst a once-a-year event.
- uberman 6y agoThe article leads with: "Many Americans worry about when – not if – another mass shooting will occur" but several paragraphs in it concedes: "The frequency of these public mass shootings is slightly increasing, but the 20 per year average has remained largely consistent since 2006 Does it not seem reasonable that something that historically occurs more than one a month could be expected to happen again in the future? Let's take it at face value that any individual's chance of being a victim is astronomically small. The author seems to be suggesting that since the threat to any given individual is negligible that we should not be alarmed or take measures to mitigate it. No one second guesses if hurricanes are going to happen in the future even though there are statistically twice as many "active shooter incidents" as hurricanes in the USA. Hurricanes and tornados typically kill as many people a year (Katrina a notable exception) as "active shooter incidents". Should we stop preparing for these weather events, remove the shelters and cancel these safety drills? I'm not taking a stance on gun control here, just suggesting that ignoring something that you know is going to happen regularly in the future on the grounds that the statistical risk to any given individual is negligible seems rather short sighted to me.
- uberman 6y agoTragically, it took 5 days for the next mass shooting to occur: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/17/us/metro-atlanta-shootings-wednesday/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/17/us/metro-atlanta-shootings-we... Anyone still feel that it is "if" rather than "when"?
- uberman 6y agoAgain 5 days later: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/23/us/boulder-colorado-shooting-tuesday/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/23/us/boulder-colorado-shooting-...