This Is Not OK America: "More preschoolers are shot dead each year than police officers"

[kpete]

More preschoolers are shot dead each year (82 in 2013) than police officers are in the line of duty (27 in 2013)
Nicholas Kristof

..........

First, we need to comprehend the scale of the problem: It’s not just occasional mass shootings like the one at an Oregon college on Thursday, but a continuous deluge of gun deaths, an average of 92 every day in America. Since 1970, more Americans have died from guns than died in all U.S. wars going back to the American Revolution.

When I reported a similar figure in the past, gun lobbyists insisted that it couldn’t possibly be true. But the numbers are unarguable: fewer than 1.4 million war deaths since 1775, more than half in the Civil War, versus about 1.45 million gun deaths since 1970 (including suicides, murders and accidents).

If that doesn’t make you flinch, consider this:

In America, more preschoolers are shot dead each year (82 in 2013) than police officers are in the line of duty (27 in 2013), according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI.

the rest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/opinion/sunday/nicholas-kristof-a-new-way-to-tackle-gun-deaths.html?smid=tw-nytopinion&smtyp=cur

[Mnemosyne]

1. KnR! nt

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

2. Wow. Being a preschooler is more dangerous than being a cop.

[Igel]

5. Really?

Sample size is irrelevant here?

Two standards for high school graduates in Texas are

• Average (mean) results are reported,
but not the amount of variation
around the mean.
• Absolute and proportional quantities
or percentages are mixed together
without clarification.


You want us to understand proportionality. You give us absolute numbers. Sample size matters.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

6. Of course there are a gazillion more preschoolers than cops,

but it's still a staggering figure.

[A Simple Game]

11. Yes sample size is irrelevant.

more preschoolers are shot dead each year (82 in 2013) than police officers are in the line of duty (27 in 2013)

There are no claims about percentages in this statement. The statement stands by itself and is disgusting in it's truth. You should be ashamed to nit-pick it.

If percentages matter so much to you find the numbers, it shouldn't be too hard, and report back to us.

[whatthehey]

13. Not to the statement "more dangerous than..." it isn't

That's like saying it's more dangerous to go to work than to freefall skydive. More people die at work than skydiving.

Percentages should matter, indeed must matter, to anyone concerned with comparing risk.

[A Simple Game]

16. Then occupation must matter to you also. Being a cop doesn't even rank in the top

15 jobs with the highest death rate, by percentage. Neither does being a preschooler. Then again being a preschooler isn't an occupation at all. Another person that should be ashamed of nit-picking is all I see here. Just trying to divert from the main point. So how many dead preschoolers does it take to make someone think there's a problem?

[JDPriestly]

19. "Sample size matters." Tell that to the moms and dads and grandparents of the DEAD pre-schoolers.

There is nothing, nothing, nothing worse than losing your child, especially a pre-schooler you love more than your own life.

In this case, when it comes to the lives of pre-schoolers lost when the loss was preventable, SAMPLE SIZE DOES NOT MATTER AT ALL.

Every pre-schooler is the heart and soul of his or her parent. When a pre-schooler dies, a whole family suffers a pain that cannot be cured.

No. Sample size does not matter in this case.

[redgreenandblue]

40. Yes, sample size matters.

If one out of ten people get shot, then more people are getting shot than if one out of a hundred people get shot.

Why do people have such a hard time wrapping their heads around this?

Sample size makes all the difference in the world when deciding on policy. A sickness that affects one in a billion people
doesn't warrent the same response as a sickness that affects one out of ten people.

We laugh at the right-wingers for denying evolution and climate change. "sample size does not matter" is about as bad.

And yes, I support gun control.

[JDPriestly]

41. My point is that one child is irreplaceable when that child is your child or your grandchild.

People with children will understand this.

Sample size is irrelevant when it comes to saving the lives of children.

I support rational gun control, but I think education about guns and their dangerous especially to children is what we need most now.

[BarstowCowboy]

30. I've got a great idea

Let's make all preschoolers cops. That way they'll be less likely to be shot and killed. Win-win.

[thesquanderer]

33. Excellent! And then of course the preschoolers will have guns, problem solved! (n/t)

[BarstowCowboy]

34. Unless of course...

The only way this could go wrong is if the preschoolers were the ones shooting the preschoolers in the first place.

[thesquanderer]

35. The only thing that stops a bad preschooler with a gun...

...is a good preschooler with a gun, of course.

[Oilwellian]

3. Wow, that's an eye-opening number

K&R

[treestar]

4. which is because of all the guns lying around

not properly secured by the parents, who are so afraid they need them for self defense.

[workinclasszero]

9. And they have an entire political party devoted to scaring them to death

24/7! With their very own 24/7/365 fear TV station and hate radio for the car. FEAR..FEAR..FEAR 24/7 yup that's the ticket!

You know, the scary black man in the white house who isn't really and american, hes a muslim thats going to take over Merica and murder all good white christians in their beds, or send them to death camps..jade helm...blood moons...the end is near...here come those godless commie democrats...food buckets for the endtimes...only gold will save you..and..GUNZ..MOAR GUNZ!!!

[BarstowCowboy]

32. I would like to subscribe to your newsletter

You just boiled 3 hours of Glenn Beck (commercials included) down into a single sentence. If you could keep that up for 60 minutes you'd be a lock for a FOX prime time slot!

[Eleanors38]

22. The rate of accidental childhood deaths-by-gun has been falling.

Gun numbers have been increasing. Some folks are doing something right, no?

[workinclasszero]

7. The NRA solution...

MOAR GUNZ!!

All pre-schoolers need to be armed! Water that liberty tree with baby blood Amerika!


MOAR GUNZ!!!!!!!!!!

[Crunchy Frog]

8. It's okay. It's just the price we pay for freedom in this country.

The posters on this progressive site have assured me that there's absolutely nothing we can do about it, so we just need to suck it up and get used to it.

[libodem]

10. There are nine other jobs

More dangerous than being a police officer, besides being a preeschooler. Police need st stop using how dangerous their jobs are as a pretense to violence and brutality.

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/efkk45ehhh/no-1-fishers-and-related-fishing-workers/

[Fred Sanders]

12. Yet the Washington Post has no time for such research, or to fact check any NRA lie...instead they

decide to deceptively fact check a statement by the President as he pleaded for some insanity....none will be found in the mass media.

[Eleanors38]

23. Jeez, Fred, WAPO is agitprop for gun control. Are you turning on them?

[Fred Sanders]

25. False as anything else the NRA says. But you already knew that. You disagree with Obama?

[valerief]

14. But preschoolers aren't PREBORN, so they don't matter to Jesus-shouting, flag-waving

gun-nut ammosexuals.

[olddots]

15. 1 2 3

If only the pre schoolers had had guns .........to like protect themselves and stuff .

[coolepairc]

17. I only take exception to this...

"It’s not just occasional mass shootings like the one at an Oregon college on Thursday..." From the Guardian: there is a mass shooting in the US – defined as four or more people shot in one incident – nearly every day.

[JDPriestly]

18. K&R. I would add that we need to work on our culture of anger, self-centeredness and

violence.

We are a society of individuals. It is essential to our ability to live as individuals that we live in peace as a society.

DU is a microcosm of the country and world we lie in. And look at the viciousness and anger on DU.

Most DUers probably don't have guns. But we can still express ourselves in angry language toward each other.

Again, I strongly recommend the approach and the books by Rosenberg, especially NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION.

I view every person who is on DU a long time, loses his or her temper, and gets banned as a loss to our community. Nonviolent Communication is so essential. We need to practice it here, in our homes and in the world in general.

The suggestions in the article for dealing with guns are great. But as long as we are so immature and inept in our communications with each other, the problem will continue, perhaps with fewer kiillings, but the problem will still be there.

[Dont call me Shirley]

21. Peaceful resolution communications would be a great mandatory school subject for all grades.

[JDPriestly]

24. Yes. And it could be practiced in our classrooms because it is a question of practice.

[liberal_at_heart]

26. That is one thing I have never understood about middle and high school.

In elementary school, the curriculum makes sure to include how to interact with other children and resolve conflict. I guess they figure by the time the children are 12 they are experts at conflict resolution because when kids hit middle school and high school they are left to fend for themselves when it comes to learning how to get along with others and this is at the exact time in their development that puberty hits and competition for social standing and girlfriends/boyfriends is at its peak.

[lumberjack_jeff]

20. Kicking n/t

[yeoman6987]

27. Is your OP sarcasm? Out of millions, 84 die

Out of 50,000, 27 die. I think being a cop has s high possibility of getting killed them a preschooler. Of course both examples I don't like harmed.

[Thinkingabout]

28. The GOP has run for years on being anti abortion, every life is important, abortion is murder and

Still does not do anything about gun violence. How can this be? The GOP finally stood up to Grover Norquist and busted their oath on taxes but can not or will not stand up to the NRA. Take a stand, do something right, bust the stronghold NRA has on congress members. There isn't a reasonable excuse for voting the NRA way. Democrats should nit be voting the NRA ever.

[matt819]

29. Well, it must be okay

Because we as a nation are doing nothing to stop it.

When we allow preschoolers to be shot and killed at a rate 300% greater than that of law enforcement officers, there's is little question that we have become a truly savage nation. Sure, there are some good people and places, but overall, not so much, for all the reasons we describe here every day.

And until we attack this problem as it should be attacked - on a federal, large scale effort including the CDC, gun safety, gun registration, purchase limits, and more - you will not convince me otherwise.

[redgreenandblue]

39. I don't think you understand what "rate" means. nt

[Fred Sanders]

31. Any thread assisting me to update my NRA supporter jury blacklist is appreciated!

America's children are being terrorized by The Gun.

ISIS barely registers on the danger scale for violent death to children compared to guns and their tax-exempt lobbying groups.

[TeamPooka]

36. K&R!

[Ed Suspicious]

37. Preshool Student. Most dangerous job in America.

[redgreenandblue]

38. What makes me flinch is the amount of math-fail going on here.

I think gun control is important, but I don't think peddling logical fallacies is doing anyone a favor.