Re: Days Since Last Shooting II
So your WHOLE point is that the mass shootings are statistically insignificant, therefore we should not worry about them. Is that correct?
At one point, you claimed that the Assault Weapons Ban was not effective. And then claimed all the ban did was change murders from one form to another. All in the face of actual data, one that wasn't interpreted that mass shootings was significantly down in the period of the assault weapons ban. And I'm wondering how you can interpret a 50% reduction in gun shootings over less than 10 years a "very, very slight downward trend". The rise in gun deaths between 1988 and 1996 is not an insignificant blip. It's real. Just as is the decrease until 2001.
But the overall point that mass shootings are insignificant??? Really? People die in large numbers, mostly innocent people, and they are insignificant?
That seems like a cop out.
I'm not really sure why I should continue to respond to you when you either intentionally or unintentionally misrepresent what I've written, but I'll give you another chance.
My point was that mass shooting deaths are statistically insignificant as compared with shooting deaths in general, and deaths overall, yes. If you are going to have a giant political (and possibly constitutional) battle over something, I suggest you have it over something other than events that have resulted in 1000 deaths over 50 years.
Should we "worry" about them, in your words? I don't, again because they are quite rare, even though they attract mass attention. I can't choose what people worry about. I don't worry about getting hit by lightning, dying in a plane crash, or getting hit by a bus, but all of those
could happen to me, obviously.
With respect to the chart, which I think is pretty self-explanatory. What you should see is that non-handgun shooting related deaths have been pretty static, with perhaps a very slight downward trend over the years depicted in the chart. That line represents deaths caused by assault weapons, and is the green line. There are obviously year to year bumps where it might be up slightly, but then the downward trend ends. What the line certainly shows is that there was no significant or meaningful drop off in non-handgun related deaths following the assault weapon ban. The slight downward trend simply continued.
The chart also shows that in the 1990's we saw a dramatic increase followed by an equally dramatic decrease in the number of handgun related deaths. I have no idea why that happened, and I haven't seen where anyone else has explained it either. But of course, your assault weapons ban wouldn't affect those statistics at all, will it, unless you want to claim that by implementing the assault weapons ban we were successful in increasing handgun deaths by 60%.
Finally, I didn't say that mass shootings are insignificant. To the victims they are obviously hugely significant. What I said, and which I've repeated above, is that the number of mass shooting deaths are insignificant compared with shooting deaths in general, and all deaths as a whole.
Let me put it another way. Cancer causes hundreds of thousands of deaths in this country each year. What if I told you that 100 of them were caused by cancer to the gallbladder? Are we suddenly going to throw everything we have at curing gallbladder cancer? Is that where we draw the line in the sand? Obviously to anyone affected by gallbladder cancer it is a very, very significant deal, but as cold as this might sound to you, overall it's pretty insignificant
statistically speaking. That doesn't mean that we
stop thinking about gallbladder cancer or how we might avoid or cure it, but our efforts and money needs to be concentrated where they will have a real impact.
My overall point is this. Guns, and the right to possess or carry them, is an extremely emotional and political issue. I have no idea why you want to wage that war for something that really isn't going to affect the problem that has you all "worried" right now, mass shootings. If you want to wage that war, I applaud you for it, but I suggest you actually try to accomplish something for your efforts.
