I don’t worry too much about it at all. I shop at the Safeway where Gabrielle Giffords and 18 other people were shot in 2011 and the concern doesn’t even enter my mind. You can’t predict when these things might happen or go out of your way to avoid them, so I find it better not to dwell on it, since the odds of my getting caught in the middle of a shooting are probably more remote than the odds of drawing a royal flush.
I do have to, on occasion, drive through some areas where random shootings occur. So yes, I have a concern. I’m more concerned about a bullet from a high-powered rifle going through a car or a wall, missing its intended victim, and killing me than some terrorist grabbing me and shooting me.
I gave it a 4, but on second thought, I would do 3. At least I have some control over avoiding a car accident.
I can’t speak for ElvisL1ves but my view is that while these shooting sprees obviously get all the attention they are extremely rare and you can’t stop a determined lunatic who often doesn’t care if he dies in the process of killing others (although obviously you could make it more difficult for said lunatic to get weapons in some cases). The same applies to terrorist attacks - you can reduce their likelihood but you can’t stop them all.
The real issue is the tens of thousands of one-off homicides and negligence-caused accidents, which could be reduced if the NRA and fellow travellers weren’t fighting so hard to prevent ANYTHING from being done.
Does it? Or do we just hear about it more frequently? And remember that the US has 300M people - vastly more than the UK.
You might also consider how infrequently defensive gun use gets spotlighted, let alone reported.
According to this there have been 39 mass shootings in the US since the year 2000. UK’s population is 20% that of the US (64 million to 318 million), so all else being equal that would equate to 7.8 such incidents in the UK in the last 15 years, so even adjusting for population the frequency is still considerably higher (if you include the 7/7 attacks and the manhunt for Moat there have been 3).
Dunno if defensive gun use cancels things out numbers wise, having a hard time finding a source for the numbers, according to this researcher there are 760,000 (!) such uses per annum.
Still, the point is that the mass shootings, particularly in schools for some reason, outstrip what you’d see over here, which is which I was interested in seeing the response too it. Seems like most either don’t think about it at all or class it along with, say, lightning strikes as something that’s not impossible but that you’d be shit outta luck to have happen to you.
We had a “man with a gun” lockdown where I teach this past spring. A dropout student was spotted entering school grounds with some type of long gun. He was apprehended before he managed to shoot anybody. The lockdown was lifted and we finished the day as usual. The students and faculty treated the entire incident as little more than an annoyance. Certainly, we didn’t dismiss early or have a small army of counselors in as other districts in the region do every time they have a fight or a bomb scare.
Honestly, it’s never crossed my mind as a concern, so I voted 0.
Zero. I live in a city, with a metropolitan area of around seven million. If some nutjob wants to go on a killing spree, my odds of drawing a short straw are vanishingly small.
IMO. comparing the people of the UK with those of the the USA is like comparing the responses of mountain lions living in the wild with kitties living in the Queens bedroom.
Sure, both cats, but the total difference in outlook & behavior is way to big to allow a direct comparison of social behavior, beliefs and embedded behavior that only effects or affects one group…
The total background & history are so different that expecting a relevant comparison on basic attitudes is like saying every person in every country on earth in 2015 should have the same morals, outlook, behavior, etc. as all the others.
It does not work like that yet so theses kinds of comparisons are useless except for “We are better than you” prancing & preening.
YMMV
Well, no shit. Point being that even taking into account the population difference there are more of these types of incident in the US than anywhere else, hence me wondering if people are afraid of them, I’m not asking why they happen.
I’ve met two serial killers, and interacted with one of them over a dozen times in the course of 3 years. Each time, it was just me and him, in my office.
I didn’t worry then, I don’t worry now. I’m in more danger from hitting a deer with my car.
In the developed world anyway; there are third-world hellholes much worse. The US combines a notable (but nowhere near the top) rate of shooting incidents with a large population to give a high absolute number of shooting sprees.
“the people of the SDMB”
And you think this will be a meaningful answer?
Yes we are in the “IMO” thread and the answers are as meaningless as a survey as is the question.
If you are claiming the cross section of the SD is representative of the US as a whole. :smack: Is all I can say.
IMO, your question implied the question was to all the people since there was no qualification. Since no one here can claim with a certainty what the rest of the citizens think about it, pulled from the ass answers are all that can be gotten.
Directly pulled out of my ass: (It is actually 15.64% of city dwellers (liberal leaning cities only ) and 1.32% of the country folks.)
IMO :rolleyes:
YMMV 
I don’t know why you’re getting upset, just to reassure you this isn’t statistical research that’s going to be cited in an academic paper or appear in the evening news, it’s just for my personal edification. The board is predominantly American so it seemed as good a place as any to ask.
Not upset Period Dot
You just seem a more intelligent poster than many so I wondered why the, IMO, poorly asked question as, IMO, you were going to get totally useless answers.
Now I don’t visit any message board that are in & about the UK but even I know that asking this kind of question would be useless and would not give me any kind of representative answer.
I would more likely ask specif persons or ask about any real studies.
I don’t ask the best questions but I do watch the questions of the better posters.
I will try to refrain from asking ‘why’ you are asking that way in the future and just hope that any answer to a question worded like this one, you will never use as a cite anywhere.
Peace…