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Schools are safer than they were in the 90s

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Re: Schools are safer than they were in the 90s

#4
Can someone say "Security Theater"?

In cases like these I like to take the Freakonomics formula for risk, that outrage factors more into observed risk than actual danger.

We're more worried about Terrorism than Heart Disease, even as we have far more control over the latter.

Re: Schools are safer than they were in the 90s

#6
post #3

Shouldn't the comparison be made against school shootings world wide? Or at least be normalized for overall crime rate or something?

The numbers are so tiny that comparisons are pretty much irrelevant. Since 1996 there have been just 8 mass k-12 shootings (incidents involving 4 or more school deaths, excluding the assailant), in a nation of 330 million people.

That's so far into small numbers territory that any comparisons are guaranteed to be overwhelmed by noise.

Re: Schools are safer than they were in the 90s

#7

The data they use in the study, don’t match the data gathered by the community. There is a clear upward-trend since the 60’s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_...

First I'm not sure that is a good source. We have no idea if this list is vetted. Second, just because there is an increase in volume doesn't necessarily mean an increase in rate.

Re: Schools are safer than they were in the 90s

#8
it’s unlikely that any of them will prevent mass school shootings

“The thing to remember is that these are extremely rare events, and no matter what you can come up with to prevent it, the shooter will have a workaround,” Fox said, adding that over the past 35 years, there have been only five cases in which someone ages 18 to 20 used an assault rifle in a mass shooting.

this seems weak. if shootings are rare events stopping one would make a considerable difference. just because assault rifles were rarely used in past 35 years in what way does that influence a future projection? What if we had a Vegas type event around a school? I don't really understand the thesis here

Re: Schools are safer than they were in the 90s

#10

The data they use in the study, don’t match the data gathered by the community. There is a clear upward-trend since the 60’s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_...

I'd it a trend though? Or is it just reporting accuracy? Perhaps just scaled to population it is constant?

A Wikipedia list does not answer any of those questions.

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