Have mass shootings ever affected how you live or think?

[k9bfriender]

@Jonathan_Chance

It is entirely a math problem, my friend. Just as so many things are when you look at them properly.

Death by mass shooting in the US: 1196 killed (2018 data)

So the incidence there becomes: 1196 divided by 327.2 million (2018 US population, US Census)

Incidence of death by mass shooting? 0.0036553%

Or three-one thousandth of a percent.

More are injured than are killed, and just because you survive doesn’t mean that you fully recover. I would consider someone injured in a mass shooting to be fairly affected. I would also consider relatives of those injured or killed in a mass shooting to be affected. Maybe it’s a stretch to say that the employer of a person who had a relative injured in a mass shooting is affected, but, due to the shooting in Dayton last weekend, I was down an employee most of the week.

As to the others, we are working on smoking deaths, and there’s going to be some lag on that. Even though I quit smoking several years ago, it is not unlikely that in 20-30 years, I’ll be counted as a smoking related statistic. Would that mean that smoking is still a problem, even if there are no smokers anymore? We kicked smokers out of pretty much all enclosed public spaces, we taxed the hell out of cigarettes, and forced the tobacco companies to pay for anti-tobacco ads.

Whenever I drive, I assume that everyone else on the road is trying to kill me. I take precautions, I drive carefully and defensively. I take active steps to lower the risk to myself and those around me. There are also cops out on the road that I see everyday, and they too are tasked with working towards making the roads safer.

We are focussing on those things, and it is working, both at a society level and at the individual level to decrease your risk of being harmed by them.

Unlike those other dangers, a shooter comes with no warning. Especially in our open carry culture, a shooter can walk right to their target without anyone batting an eye until they start pulling the trigger. There is nothing you can do to lower your chances of being involved in a an active shooting situation, except, as you point out, never leaving the house.

Those other dangers you mention, those are things that we can prepare for, we can work to prevent, and we do work to decrease their effect. For a shooter, there is nothing that can reasonably be done on an individual level to lower your risk of being involved in one, and there is nothing being done on a society level either.

[k9bfriender]

@Jonathan_Chance

In the US, the CDC reports that 500-600 people are struck by lightning every year. How should we react to that? Never go out or drive in storms? Place lightning rods every thousand yards (though I might argue cell towers are filling this role already!). The incidence of lightning strikes is about half the incidence of death by mass shooting. Should we devote time to preventing it?

We do work to prevent it. We don’t let people get into pools if we hear thunder. We tell people not to golf in thunderstorms. We tell people to seek shelter in thunderstorms, and not to shelter under tall trees. We do have lightning rods, though those are to protect property rather than people.

And as you said, the incidence of lightning strikes (not deaths, that’s closer to 50) is only half that of mass shooting(deaths, not including injuries), and it is something that we already devote time to preventing.

The number of deaths in the United States by dog attacks is growing. It’s small - about 40-50 each year - the the number of serious injuries (requiring hospitalization) is between 6000-1300 per year - but growing in incidence. I’m not sure anyone knows why. So the incidence of death by dog attack is floating about 1/30 to 1/20 of mass shootings. What should people do? Avoid dogs altogether?

The reasons why have to do with irresponsible owners getting something that they think is just an inanimate toy that will just exist for their pleasure (and hospitalization is up mostly because wounds that used to be treated at home perfectly effectively are now taken to the ER, and for these stats, even a minor laceration is considered serious if you were treated at the hospital). There are things that are done about it, some are mostly ineffective like breed specific dog bans and the like, but also, you can’t bring your dog into most establishments, and just neutering your male dog will decrease it chances of attacking someone pretty substantially; training it will be even better. Personally, I would like to see a licensing system where you have to at least sign a statement that you are aware that this is a living creature that you must take care of before you can have one, but I’d advocate for something a bit more explicit and restrictive than just that. But yeah, there are concerns about it, there are steps that are taken to reduce or eliminate it, and as you say, it only causes 1/30th to 1/20th of mass shootings.

[sjankis630]

This does not really impact my life even though I live in a major metropolitan area. I drive to work daily - over 300 miles per week and know that a traffic accident is more than likely to do me in.
However I was pretty worried several years ago during the rein of the DC sniper when those shootings happened.

D.C. sniper attacks

Looking back now I remember how much people were scared = myself included - as at first they were killing people at random and just disappearing.
I remember abstaining from sitting outside and after a couple of victims were shot at gas stations, some gas station owners were putting up blue tarp around the pumps to allay fear.
Also early on a white van was falsely implicated as the sniper’s vehicle of choice and we all discovered that white vans were all over the place.
That was one weird time here in Northern Virginia.
I also remember one other thing that occurred for me.
Since the killings were so mysterious I did what I do now which is come on a web forum to try and discuss theories with others how this was unfolding.
I quickly gave up however, as several of these conversations just devolved into huge second amendment arguments which were nasty and completely unproductive.

[Spiderman]

My earlier post went poof

Nope, they are so statically insignificant as to not worry about. However, drunk drivers kill (& injure) a lot more people & I have altered my behavior because of them. I never get in a car on NYE; my rule is party where I sleep. Same with July 4th, limit time in the car as that’s an even worse night for DUI’s. It doesn’t matter if I’m a sober driver, or a responsible passenger; it’s the other drunk asshole that’ll get you when they run a red light or come over the center line.

[Lumpy]

The problem with comparing mass shootings with accidents is that mass shootings are deliberate. People will accept astonishingly high rates of accidental death- automobiles are proof of that- but anything initiated by another person sets off panic and outrage. Why this makes a difference I’m not sure, but it does.

[octopus]

@Reply

They make me hate Republicans even more, with every passing one. And as a member of a racial minority, it’s impossible to dissociate the violence from Trump’s race-baiting and the rise of the American Nazi movement. It’s pretty clear that a race war is what the Right wants, with ethnonationalism being their preferred strategy in times of global uncertainty – immigrants/refugees, economic disparity, climate crisis, all connected, all answered by genocidal white supremacy. It’s always the same cries after every shooting: we need more gun control, more mental health care, less racism, a less toxic vision of masculinity, etc., and it’s always the same people, old white Republican men virtue signaling to lost young white boys, who forestall change because it works in their favor. Getting the working class to shoot each other based on skin color and birthplace is a great way to prevent them from working together towards political and economic power.

In the short term, that means I’m considering concealed carry as a last resort. But then chances are good I’d just be randomly shot by law enforcement instead. In the long term, it certainly feels as though a civil war looms ever closer, or another series of concentration camps. First the Indians, then the Japanese, then the Chinese, then the Muslims, then the Mexicans… who’s next?

The mass shootings are statistically unlikely to directly harm me, but the ideology they espouse – ethnonationalism enforced by genocidal capitalism – has a lot of appeal to the Republicans, and that has absolutely measurable harm. I certainly no longer feel safe in the United States of America, even as a citizen, especially anywhere between the coasts. The shootings are just the vanguard, but the mainstream Right isn’t far behind them. Whether by ammunition or by policy, their goals are the same.

I wonder what the breakdown by party and other demographic categories mass shootings is.

For me personally, it changes my thinking somewhat. The lethality of modern weapons is ridiculous.

[Majestic_Lee]

Not here, mainly because lunatics aren’t allowed to obtain the sort of weaponry that should only be seen in the arena of major war zones.

[HurricaneDitka]

@snfaulkner

So, if you’re not worried, why then is it a part of your decision to carry?

Somewhat like car accidents and seat belts: I’m roughly aware of the statistics, and so I wear a seatbelt on the off chance that I get unlucky that particular day, but I don’t “worry” that I might get in a car wreck anytime I drive (at least not in the sense of an action that verb describes), or at least not enough to cause me any noticeable stress, or occupy my conscious thoughts for any significant amount of time.

[HurricaneDitka]

@Majestic_Lee

Not here…

Where is “here”?

[EmilyG]

Mass shootings have made me less likely to want to visit the United States, and more worried about going there.

[katie1341]

I work in a government building, and we have active shooter drills every so often. Everyone in my office has a rubber door stop to try to buy a few extra seconds if there is a shooter. I am the designated leader of my office of 10 people to gt them out and / 0or keep them safe in the event of a shooter.

[Buttercup_Smith]

I work on a Federal installation and we are preached to very often and practice active shooter drills. I know the chances are slim but the demographic I am around most days are more predisposed to have firearms. And more predisposed to having PTSD. It is always in the back of my mind on the job.

[Chingon]

I guess someone needed to tell those people about math.

[Little_Nemo]

There was a mass shooting three blocks from where I live. It happened ten years ago. Its effect on me was minimal because I happened to not be home at the time.

[Wallet]

Have mass shootings ever affected how you live or think?

Yes.

I was in my classroom one day with 20 three and four year olds when parents began to stream in to take their kids home early - that’s when I found out about the Sandy Hook shooting. We had active shooter drills in my school for years before 2012, but this particular shooting hit me hard. Little lives were snuffed out, for no conceivable reason.
My Para and I hugged all our children the following day, and tried to think of ways to keep everyone safe. My para tried to squeeze as many kids as she could with her in our little bathroom, and I took the rest into our walk in closet. We practiced often, in addition to multiple school-wide drills.
Things eventually settled down, but that fear has never left us.

Do you know what active shooter drills are like with little children? We huddle close to the floor, out of sight from our door’s window. No sounds from anyone, dead silence. We try to make it into a jolly game for the little ones, and try not to let them feel our fear.

Would I have the courage to shield the children from a lunatic’s bullets? I’d like to think so, but it scares me that I just don’t know what might happen. I promise my parents every year that their children are our children for the time we have them.

I wish there was a way to shield them for the rest of their lives.

[pullin]

Zero effect.

I try (within my own human frailties) to be as reasonable and accurate as possible wrt threat worries. I’m aware, at least somewhat, of which dangers statistically threaten me. I modify these with my own experiences of the things which have hurt me in the past, and spend my energy there.

Mass shooting at the Walmart? Doesn’t even enter my thoughts, even if it’s on the news that day.

Here are the things I worry about:
Heart health, and following my cardiologist’s directions.
Drunk drivers, and ensuring I’m off the roads during “the witching hours”.
Petty and random crime - muggings, beatings.
Attacks by extremely violent criminals/home invaders.
Burglaries, B&E, and property theft.

In short, I worry about the things which have actually happened to me - not some statistically impossible events like meteorite strikes, mass shooters, or the like. There are a few others that I believe are likely due to probabilities, but I’ve never needed to worry about - like seat belts, airbags, fire extinguishers, smoke alarms. I’ve never needed any of those, but am convinced I should employ them regularly.

[Leaffan]

@HurricaneDitka

Where is “here”?

Location says UK.

I’m pretty sure all non-US dwellers feel completely safe in our respective countries.

[kayT]

@Leaffan

Location says UK.

I’m pretty sure all non-US dwellers feel completely safe in our respective countries.

Are you being sarcastic or serious? I can’t tell.

[Leaffan]

@kayT

Are you being sarcastic or serious? I can’t tell.

Serious.

[kayaker]

@EmilyG

Mass shootings have made me less likely to want to visit the United States, and more worried about going there.

I live in the US, but have vacationed outside of the US for the past 18 years after witnessing some horrible racist behavior in the US south.