5 ms·

I just looked up the LAPD's crime statistics: http://assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/cityprof.pdf http://assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/cityprof.pdf (The NYP

by skymt 11y ago

I just looked up the LAPD's crime statistics: http://assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/cityprof.pdf http://assets.lapdonline.org/assets/pdf/cityprof.pdf (The NYPD's equivalent report doesn't count shots fired.) Between April 5 and May 2 of this year, there were 187 recorded cases of shots fired in all of LA.

ceejayoz 11y ago
With 92 shooting victims in that same time period, I'm guessing that's a massive undercount. Probably only counts times they catch and charge a shooter.
- kps 11y ago
  Not every gunshot has a victim (or is intended to). [Edit: I misunderstood]
  - ceejayoz 11y ago
    Precisely my point. 92 shooting victims and 187 shots fired incidents means a 50% successful hit rate assuming every shots fired incident intended to hit someone. Given that the US military uses up 250k rounds per killed insurgent (http://jonathanturley.org/2011/01/10/gao-u-s-has-fired-250000-rounds-for-every-insurgent-killed/ http://jonathanturley.org/2011/01/10/gao-u-s-has-fired-25000...) I rather suspect LA has more than ~200 shots fired a month.
    - hga 11y ago
      Your last statistic ... isn't so useful, I haven't heard of Bloods and Crips laying down suppressive fire with General Purpose Machine Guns ^_^! Even going to, say, the statistic I read some time ago of police hitting about 1 in 4 times they fired isn't so useful, because this I take this to be a metric of shooting incidents, in which multiple gun shots were probably fired.
      - ceejayoz 11y ago
        To clarify, I doubt gang members in LA are firing hundreds of thousands of rounds... but I also doubt they're only firing at live targets and hitting as high as half of them. There's a reason they have reputations for "pray and spray".
    - kevinnk 11y ago
      The US military kills people with high powered machine guns, uses tactics like suppressive fire, trains constantly with live ammunition, etc. I'm not the comparison is very relevant.
    - dragonwriter 11y ago
      > Given that the US military uses up 250k rounds per killed insurgent I'm willing to bet that average engagement ranges in street violence in the US are closer, and the involved parties less effective at using cover and concealment, than is usually the case in battles between professional modern military forces and insurgent groups that still exist after several years of ongoing combat with professional modern military forces. Also, the weapons used are different. So, generally, I wouldn't use statistics for the latter as a yardstick for evaluating shots/victim ratios for the former.

by skymt 11y ago

ceejayoz 11y ago

With 92 shooting victims in that same time period, I'm guessing that's a massive undercount. Probably only counts times they catch and charge a shooter.

kps 11y ago
Not every gunshot has a victim (or is intended to). [Edit: I misunderstood]
- ceejayoz 11y ago
  Precisely my point. 92 shooting victims and 187 shots fired incidents means a 50% successful hit rate assuming every shots fired incident intended to hit someone. Given that the US military uses up 250k rounds per killed insurgent (http://jonathanturley.org/2011/01/10/gao-u-s-has-fired-250000-rounds-for-every-insurgent-killed/ http://jonathanturley.org/2011/01/10/gao-u-s-has-fired-25000...) I rather suspect LA has more than ~200 shots fired a month.
  - hga 11y ago
    Your last statistic ... isn't so useful, I haven't heard of Bloods and Crips laying down suppressive fire with General Purpose Machine Guns ^_^! Even going to, say, the statistic I read some time ago of police hitting about 1 in 4 times they fired isn't so useful, because this I take this to be a metric of shooting incidents, in which multiple gun shots were probably fired.
    - ceejayoz 11y ago
      To clarify, I doubt gang members in LA are firing hundreds of thousands of rounds... but I also doubt they're only firing at live targets and hitting as high as half of them. There's a reason they have reputations for "pray and spray".
  - kevinnk 11y ago
    The US military kills people with high powered machine guns, uses tactics like suppressive fire, trains constantly with live ammunition, etc. I'm not the comparison is very relevant.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    > Given that the US military uses up 250k rounds per killed insurgent I'm willing to bet that average engagement ranges in street violence in the US are closer, and the involved parties less effective at using cover and concealment, than is usually the case in battles between professional modern military forces and insurgent groups that still exist after several years of ongoing combat with professional modern military forces. Also, the weapons used are different. So, generally, I wouldn't use statistics for the latter as a yardstick for evaluating shots/victim ratios for the former.