Originally Posted by k71021
To be honest Cicadashell, I do think that using the
unintentional (see DoJ link below) firearm related deaths does decrease the random nature of the events and make them significantly less comparable to lighting strikes. They only represents 3-4 percent of firearm death and I am sure that they are more random than Homicides or Suicides. I do not really get the point of your argument about randomness and then talking about people being around. Depending on you definition of “around” we are almost always around other people; at least like to be. Could you elaborate a bit on your argument?
As you can see from the Department of Justice figures, unintentional deaths, which is what I was talking about do not include Suicides and Homicides. So I would interperet that to mean more random events, like if a child accidently shoots the person that lives upstairs through the floor because he/she was playing with dad’s rifle. Would you interpret the word in some other way?
I am surprised and happy to see the downward trend in firearm related deaths from 1991 to 2001. I wonder what has happened since then?
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance/tables/frmdth.htm
i shouldn't have implied that randomness mattered. my point is that if you divide total deaths from lightning strikes by total number of years, you get a sort of "average" likelihood of being struck by lightening at any moment. but that is meaningless, really, because most of the time, only a few persons are near an electrical storm. if you are not near an electrical storm, your chances of getting struck by lightning are virtually zero; if you are in the middle of an electrical storm, your chances are quite high. the firearm death statistics are a red herring, i think. our exposure to firearms, on average, is greater; that is, there are firearms everywhere. so it stands to reason that your risk of being killed by one, accidentally or not, is relatively high.
i do not want to talk about guns, though. i would rather discuss statistics, and quantitative risk assessment. my point is that it is useful to understand the risks of lightning, and to take precautions when you are in an electrical storm. i think the comparison with gun deaths is not instructive.