In a world where all terrorist attacks are not equal • Hacker News Board

Re: In a world where all terrorist attacks are not equal

#11

Post by DanBC » Sat, Nov 14, 2015, 10:07 PM UTC

hellofunk wrote: post #5

I learned a little while back that there are 250 gun deaths every day in the U.S. That's the equivalent of 2 of the Paris attacks, every single day. A staggering figure of close to 100K gun deaths every year, or 30x the 9/11 deaths. So while they aren't necessarily "terrorist"-related in the common sense of the term, they certainly bring terror to many families and neighborhoods.

The US has about 16,000 gun deaths per year. (with a bunch more deaths by suicide). That's about 40 per day.

In 2013 CDC say: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_Sta...

> in 2013, firearms (excluding BB and pellet guns) were used in

> 84,258 nonfatal injuries (26.65 per 100,000 U.S. citizens) [2] and

> 11,208 deaths by homicide (3.5 per 100,000),[3]

> 21,175 by suicide with a firearm,[4]

> 505 deaths due to accidental discharge of a firearm,[4] and

> 281 deaths due to firearms-use with "undetermined intent"[5] for a total of 33,169 deaths related to firearms (excluding firearm deaths due to legal intervention).

That would be about 90 per day. US police shoot and kill about 1,000 people per year, but weirdly they don't count so we don't have robust numbers.

Re: In a world where all terrorist attacks are not equal

#12

Post by hellofunk » Sat, Nov 14, 2015, 10:27 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #11

hellofunk wrote: post #5

I learned a little while back that there are 250 gun deaths every day in the U.S. That's the equivalent of 2 of the Paris attacks, every single day. A staggering figure of close to 100K gun deaths every year, or 30x the 9/11 deaths. So while they aren't necessarily "terrorist"-related in the common sense of the term, they certainly bring terror to many families and neighborhoods.

The US has about 16,000 gun deaths per year. (with a bunch more deaths by suicide). That's about 40 per day. In 2013 CDC say: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_Sta... > in 2013, firearms (excluding BB and pellet guns) were used in > 84,258 nonfatal injuries (26.65 per 100,000 U.S. citizens) [2] and > 11,208 deaths by homicide (3.5 per 100,000),[3] > 21,175 by suicide with a firearm,[4] > 505 de…

I was referring to a report by the Brady Campaign that in 2012 there were over 90K gun deaths in that particular year. I saw this recently on the news, and the stats stuck in my head for obvious reasons.

Re: In a world where all terrorist attacks are not equal

#13

Post by dogma1138 » Sat, Nov 14, 2015, 10:58 PM UTC

hellofunk wrote: post #12

DanBC wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has about 16,000 gun deaths per year. (with a bunch more deaths by suicide). That's about 40 per day. In 2013 CDC say: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_Sta... > in 2013, firearms (excluding BB and pellet guns) were used in > 84,258 nonfatal injuries (26.65 per 100,000 U.S. citizens) [2] and > 11,208 deaths by homicide (3.5 per 100,000),[3] > 21,175 by suicide with a firearm,[4] > 505 de…

I was referring to a report by the Brady Campaign that in 2012 there were over 90K gun deaths in that particular year. I saw this recently on the news, and the stats stuck in my head for obvious reasons.

There wasn't a single year with 90K gun related deaths, especially not in 2012, they might have had numbers for total "gun related casualties" which includes injuries, homicides, suicides and accidental discharges which might be closer to the actual figures. These are the FBI figures https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2012/... so shy under 9K crime related gun death.

With all honesty that figure should've made any sensible person give it the sniff test even if it was released by the NRA yet alone by the Brady Campaign. So either the total report is BS, the figures weren't for fatalities but for all casualties or your memory isn't as good as you think it is or any combination of all of the above.

Re: In a world where all terrorist attacks are not equal

#14

Post by omonra » Sun, Nov 15, 2015, 1:05 AM UTC

I'm tired of reading this type of analysis because it's simply stupid. And I am pretty convinced the author knows it himself.

Here is why - islamic terrorists killing a few hundred people in Beirut (or anywhere in the Middle East, really) is normal. Not in a sense of 'what the world should be like' but in a sense of 'this is not an unexpected occurrence'.

Same way that Christian terrorists (even though they weren't called that) killing 20 thousands people in Paris 443 years ago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Bartholomew%27s_Day_massac...) was normal back then. That's what the Christian world was going through.

However in the last few hundred years Paris didn't really have religious terrorism - that's why it coming back is a big deal.