Here we go again...
this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
1100 points (95.2% liked)
Memes
45560 readers
1458 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
As disturbing as these mass shootings are, they're still very rare. The vast majority of Americans will never be in a mass shooting, let alone tourists who only visit occasionally.
It's telling that most American police officers go their entire career without shooting their guns except at the firing range.
But, it is a sign of US dysfunction that the problem is so obvious but there's zero chance of the problem being solved any time soon.
There are still a lot of gun homocides. Mass shootings are only part of the story.
And do you need to worry about those? Not if you aren’t involved in drugs or gangs
A lot compared to other countries, but not so many that a tourist would have to worry about it, especially if they stick to touristey areas.
If someone decided to go into certain neighbourhoods in certain cities, especially while looking like a tourist, they could get in trouble. But, not visiting the US because you're afraid of getting shot is like not being willing to swim anywhere in the Atlantic ocean because you're afraid of being bitten by a shark. In both cases, the danger is minimal unless you ignore the warning signs.
I mean, not that rare. I remember back in college I knew 5 different people who were in a mass school shooting as a kid - all from different states.
Just this week there have been 5 mass shootings.
The plural of anecdote is not data.
That’s still incredibly rare
So, you know some people who were in a mass shooting, but they lived. If they know some people who died in a mass shooting that's two degrees of separation between you and a mass shooting death.
As for the mass shootings this week, they include a convenience store robbery, something that seems to be a murder-suicide where someone killed their family, a shootout over a stolen car, shots at a house party. And, in only 2 of those cases (the 5 dead in a house, and the rampage in Maine) were more than 1 person killed. These all technically qualify as mass shootings, but the rampage in Maine is the only kind we really think of as being a typical mass shooting.
It's far too many. There's no question about that. It's also absurd how much more frequent it is in the US compared to other places. On the other hand, the US has a population of 330 million people. So, while the odds of dying in a mass shooting are higher in the US than any other developed country in the world, it's hardly a warzone. The vast majority of people in the US will not be in a mass shooting ever. Most people will never be shot in their lives. And tourists shouldn't avoid the US out of a fear of being involved in a mass shooting. Yes, it's much more likely in the US than in say Japan. But, the overall odds are low.
It was in the news in the UK a few years ago that a doctor visited the US to see some of his family that lived there, and while he was asleep in bed a stray bullet hit him and he died. Obviously I'm sure these things are unlikely but it's still kind of scary. That and I find the idea of walking around and having deranged psychos all around me potentially having a gun and them being able to pull it out and end my life at any moment kind of... unpleasant.
Okay I guess. I personally like just being able to live my life without almost getting shot every couple of hours. I have a friend who basically sounds exactly like you and lives in Texas, he also told me that he hears gunshots around him like multiple times a day. Forgive me but that doesn't sound particularly appealing.
Isn't having a crazy powerful military enough? The Spanish and French aren't about to set fires in the US anymore.
I think that depends where you go. I live in BC but go to Washington all the time and it feels pretty much just as safe.
Eh, it's safer now than it was 30 years ago, your odds of actually running into anyone with a gun are extremely low.
I love how people are mad that you're right. The only technicality I'd add is that concealed carry is a thing, so you likely walk past people carrying without knowing it, but that's the whole point of concealed carry in the first place.
Mass shooting events like this are a social problem that ends up being very complex when you start to actually try and figure out why they happen and how to prevent them. There is no short answer, but Angry White Men by Michael Kimmel is a good place to start.
Go anyway, the western US is beautiful.