TheForge wrote:
It is rare here to when you consider the population size.
No, I don't think it is. School shootings are far too common, and these days only the 'big one's' make the national headlines. An inner-city high school shooting barely makes the local papers. TheForge wrote:
But lately mass murder is a thing in France.
Careful, your Breitbart is showing. :-)
There has recently been a barrage of fake news stories and websites in France. This coincides with their election campaign. There is strong suspicion that the Russians are once again trying to influence the election to get a desirable candidate.
http://fortune.com/...-news-france-russia/ There was even a map of 'mass attacks in France' published recently showing all the carnage being done (with the subtext that its being perpetrated brown & Islamic people). This was widely circulated by France's Alt-Right, and, unfortunately picked up by American Alt-Right groups which don't seem to keen on checking the veracity and facts of the stories that fit their preconceived and prejudiced world view.
TheForge wrote:
If we were to compare guns to murder ratio I would say Americans are are better people.
Wait, what? What I read was: "Even though Americans are killed by guns at a rate that many developing nations going through war or conflict would find unacceptable, we're OK because we're showing restrain given how many guns we have."
Oy, Vey!
This is not a ratio thing. This is an absolute number of people killed thing.
Oh, and as for your supposition that Americans are better people when you compare guns to murder ratio... lets look at the numbers
Using the data found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/...m-related_death_rate Transpose the table into Excel. Take the Gun Related Homicide rate and divide it by the Per Capita Gun Ownership Rate. Then sort.
The USA is 38th out of the 72 countries listed in terms of "Gun Related Homicide rate divided by the PerCapita Gun Ownership Rate".
No quite intrinsically better than places like Canada, UK, Switzerland, Serbia, and Belarus.
And what about France?
Its ratio of "Gun Related Homicide rate divided by the PerCapita Gun Ownership Rate" is almost exactly 1/5 of the USA value. So even if the Frenchies had as many guns per capita as Americans, they would still have 1/5 of the gun related murders.
I know I'm not going to convince any one here that the US gun culture is a national tragedy. This topic of gun control faces fanatical opposition from the '2nd Amendment True Believers' and the gun lobby. I'd be easier to convince Fundamental Islamic Extremists that religion is a bunch of hog wash.
But I do think its worth stopping and reflecting on some of the data and at the human toll this issue has on the American people.
Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's