this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
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As an American, you are statistically more likely to be struck by lightning than randomly shot.
I am 65 years old and have lived in multiple states. Never been shot at, never shot a gun (except in the US Navy), never experienced any gun violence in my personal life.
As a child welfare worker I have experienced a few cases of gun violence in my professional life of nearly 30 years.
The situation of gun violence is extremely serious but also highly dramatized by media leading to the possibility of miscalculating risk.
Be careful and situationally aware is all the advice I can provide.
To expand your analogy.
As an Australian I am equally likely to be hit by lightening but about 1,000 times less likely to die by gunshot than if I was American.
The situation of gun violence in the USA is very serious and bad analogies (comparing random nature to deliberate human actions) that seek to dismiss it as a common issue when it is not are not helpful at all.
When you compare America’s gun violence to other countries, which is a much more logical comparison than lightning, it is obvious America has a horrific gun violence problem.
And that is more likely under than over-reported, given the politically toxic and deliberately difficult world that collecting gun violence statistics is in the US.
Go back to Reddit
But there's not people pulling the trigger* on a lightning strike, so that comparison is a bit eh.. disingenuous.
*can always argue about global warming meaning more lightning, but thats a different topic.
Are you white by chance? Do you like in a red state?