Here we go again...
this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
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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.
That’s still incredibly rare
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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.