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Meanwhile, in America, not only is there no national tracking of firearm discharges -- there's no national tracking of how many people are killed by police.[1]
by nkoren 14y ago
Meanwhile, in America, not only is there no national tracking of firearm discharges -- there's no national tracking of how many people are killed by police.[1] The FBI tracks "justifiable homicides" by police -- which seems to range from 350 to 400 per year[2], and is limited to "The killing of a felon by a peace officer in the line of duty"[3] -- but it explicitly refuses to track all other killings by the police. (And rather strangely, there seems to be no private group which tracks these figures either. When I've googled for it in the past, I've found anecdotal stories claiming that groups which attempt to compile these figures are strongly discouraged from doing so. But now I can't seem to find those claims, however.) News reports of the shootings of unarmed non-fellons would suggest to me that there are a few score such killings every year, but there's no way to be sure.
Moral of the story: Germany is a profoundly civilised country. America, not so much.
[1] http://www.lvrj.com/news/deadly-force/142-dead-and-rising/national-data-on-shootings-by-police-not-collected-134256308.html http://www.lvrj.com/news/deadly-force/142-dead-and-rising/na...
[2] http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/expanded_information/data/shrtable_14.html http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/expanded_informati...
[3] http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/expanded_information/homicide.html http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2009/offenses/expanded_informati...
- 16s 14y agoIt would be difficult to track discharges in the USA. Tens of millions of Americans go hunting and skeet shooting, and go to firing ranges, etc. Unless the discharge is illegal and results in injury or property damage, it's not really an issue which you would want to spend money tracking.
- nkoren 14y agoSorry, to clarify, I meant "firearms discharged in the line of duty by police officers", as per the original article.
- 16s 14y agoOh yes, that makes sense. My apologies for misunderstanding your point. I would have thought that law-enforcement discharges were tracked as they are often fatal. If not at the federal level, then certainly the state level.
- meepmorp 14y agoI think he meant discharges by LEOs, not private citizens. And we're probably only talking about during duty shooting, not target practice for the german figure - I know I send at least 100 rounds down the range when I go shooting.
- arethuza 14y ago"Germany is a profoundly civilised country. America, not so much." I don't think making unnecessarily provocative comments like this adds much to the discussion.
- soc88 14y agoCan you point to the "provocative" part? I don't see it...
- koglerjs 14y agoCivilized is not exactly a well defined term. It's essentially a subjective criticism.
- drone 14y ago"Civilized is not exactly a well defined term. It's essentially a subjective criticism." Actually, it is quite well-defined. Here you go: "1. Having a highly developed society and culture. 2. Showing evidence of moral and intellectual advancement; humane, ethical, and reasonable: terrorist acts that shocked the civilized world. 3. Marked by refinement in taste and manners; cultured; polished." So, either America has no: 1: Highly developed society and culture 2: Evidence of moral and intellectual development or 3: Refinement in taste and manners Now, which of those do you think we Americans would take the least offense to, at being lumped into a board category of "uncivilized". I find it striking that there are people taking the time to make pot-shots at America on a technology site. We need only look back a short period in history to see that civility is a very recent trend in most parts of the world, and especially so in Europe. It would be most beneficial to all of us to politely ask how we can improve each others' lives, rather than goading people into defensive postures.
- cperciva 14y agoIn my dictionary, "civilized" means "living in cities".
- Cieplak 14y agoI hate to use anecdotal evidence to support your claim, but here it goes: http://reason.com/blog/2012/05/11/california-woman-permanently-blinded-by http://reason.com/blog/2012/05/11/california-woman-permanent...