Thursday, January 17, 2013

I'm no statistician ... but

Often times I find myself agreeing with someone's overall political point while simultaneously cringing at their "facts."

When it comes to guns, I agree with many gun nuts' talking points. Like, I believe a good guy with a gun is the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun. I believe gun laws won't do much to stop criminals from murdering innocent people.

I also think military style assault weapons serve no purpose in public hands ... but that's not what I want to go into right now.

Right now I want to address the idiocy surrounding the "you're more likely to die in a car accident than get shot by a gun" comment.

Close your eyes and count to five. 1 one thousand, 2 two thousand, 3 three thousand, 4 four thousand, 5 five thousand.

Okay, now tell me how many bullets you imagine were fired across the USofA during those 5 seconds. A million maybe? Obviously the answer varies by season and time of day. But I can't image that on average, any more than one million bullets are shot every 5 seconds in the US (I'd actually bet good money it's half that number).

Now ask yourself how many people across the country were riding in a vehicle during those 5 seconds.  Oh, what's that, several million more than one million? Yeah, you bet more people ride in cars each second than shoot guns. So of course you are more likely to die in a car accident!

My gun shooting experience is probably average. There are people like my hubby who've only target shot once in their life. And there are avid hunters. Then there are average joe's like me. I grew up in a home where targe practice was an occasional family activity. I remember practicing for my hunter's safety test with the family .22. My brother's were anxious to see if our shot gun had enough kick to knock me on my butt; it just hurt my shoulder, but I stood on both feet when it fired (it also scared the snot out of me, but I hope I didn't let that show). I handled a hand gun quiet nicely on a date once. But the civil war musket will always be my favorite trigger pulled.

In my lifetime, I'ver probably fired off some 200 hundred bullets (I'm not counting BB's, that be like counting the Step 2 Coupe as a car). I'd guess that is pretty average. I'd also guess my car riding numbers are pretty average. And I can't even guesstimate how many times I've ridden in a car this winter!

I'm no statistician, but I'm pretty sure the comparison isn't valid. At all.

1 comment:

Larissa@Just Another Day in Paradise said...

Hey Liz, this is Larissa from Just Another Day in Paradise. Just wanted to let you know I answered your question...figured I could answer it here too...

You are right, no water pattern, but I am sure you can draw one or it will look great without it.

I hope you have fun with the pattern!!!

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