Another US school shooting

[TarJak]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-n...s-shot-2789287

Brashear High School near Pittsburgh. 3 students shot.

[Cybermat47]

I hope they live... and that the Police catch the scum who did this.

[Jimbuna]

More madness

Is it just me, or is this kind of news from over there not shocking anymore?
It has become so...normal...

[Platapus]

We have 300,000,000 people in the US. Even supposing that 99.9999 percent of the people are reasonably sane and not dangerous, that still leaves 30,000 dangerous nutters.

When ever a population gets that large, even a tiny percentage of nutters results in a disturbingly large actual number.

I am actually pleasantly surprised that we don't have more of these types of horrible crimes, given our population.

I rarely hear about school shootings in China or India, and both those countries roughly have 1,000,000,000 more people...
As far as I know, there have been like ~20 school shootings in Asia in total during the last decades.
Same amount of shootings occurred in the US this year alone.

I really don't think population numbers are the problem.

[TarJak]

Was he rejected because he was an Intruder?

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by TarJak

Was he rejected because he was an Intruder?

LOL

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by Platapus

What about other violent crimes? You are right population should not have a correlation with gun usage as that is more cultural. But I do think there is a correlation between population and the number of violent crimes committed.

I could be wrong.

Japan? Culture has more to do with it than numbers IMHO.

http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/Japan/United-States/Crime

Or more telling

http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/Australia/Japan/Crime
Note the assault ans firearm murder stats.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by TarJak

Japan? Culture has more to do with it than numbers IMHO.

http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/...d-States/Crime

Or more telling

http://www.nationmaster.com/compare/...ia/Japan/Crime
Note the assault ans firearm murder stats.

The problem i see with those links is the simple logic. If you cram more people in a given area, your going to see more of just about everything. In other words an area with 10,000 people, is going to see more crime then an area with 1000 people. More people, equates to more problems because as you increase people your probability increases as well.

Looking up the 2010 demographics really quickly:
Japan has a total population of 128,057,352
United States has a total population of 308,745,531
In other words as of 2010, there are 180,688,179 more people living in the US then in Japan. So of course the first link is going to say, whatever is X percent more then japan.

Comparatively, grabbing the latest statistics for Japan and Australia (no 2010 stats to match):

Australia's total population is estimated at 23,248,742. (I find this hard to believe)
Japans total population is estimated at 126,659,683.
Going by these statistics, Japan has 103,410,941 more people crammed within its borders then Australia. So of course some stats on japan will be higher.

I think statistics like these are only telling if you have a smaller population with a greater incidence of whatever it is being looked at.
edit 1: or vice versa

edit 2: As for firearm murder stats, I have to wonder, is being murdered when your assaliant used a gun somehow more horrible then being murdered by any other means? Stabbing, strangulation, baseball bat to the head? I'd say regardless of weapon used, murder is murder.

[TarJak]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

The problem i see with those links is the simple logic. If you cram more people in a given area, your going to see more of just about everything. In other words an area with 10,000 people, is going to see more crime then an area with 1000 people. More people, equates to more problems because as you increase people your probability increases as well.

Potentially, however only if the culture supports that activity. Hence the comparison between Australia and Japan. Japan, many more people in a much smaller area; but less Assault victims per head than Japan. Kinda supports the point that culture has more to do with crime than numbers. Which was my point in answer to Platapus' theory that numbers would drive crime. IMO these numbers alone make a reasonable case for culture over population or even population density.

Looking up the 2010 demographics really quickly:
Japan has a total population of 128,057,352
United States has a total population of 308,745,531
In other words as of 2010, there are 180,688,179 more people living in the US then in Japan. So of course the first link is going to say, whatever is X percent more then japan.

But that wasn't really the point. See above.

Comparatively, grabbing the latest statistics for Japan and Australia (no 2010 stats to match):

Australia's total population is estimated at 23,248,742. (I find this hard to believe)

They counted them last year: http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs%4...3?OpenDocument
Japans total population is estimated at 126,659,683.

Going by these statistics, Japan has 103,410,941 more people crammed within its borders then Australia. So of course some stats on japan will be higher.
[/quote]
Again this wasn't the point I was trying to make. Yes is sheer numbers you will see more violent crimes, but in Japan vs Australia you see a definitely lower rate of violence per capita to Australia. The difference is the culture.

I think statistics like these are only telling if you have a smaller population with a greater incidence of whatever it is being looked at.

Yes that was my point. Japan has a higher population than Australia but less violent crime per capita. Japan has much higher population density that either Australia or America but again less violent crime per capita. Hence their culture must have more to do with their behaviour than sheer numbers.

edit 2: As for firearm murder stats, I have to wonder, is being murdered when your assaliant used a gun somehow more horrible then being murdered by any other means? Stabbing, strangulation, baseball bat to the head? I'd say regardless of weapon used, murder is murder.

I agree. Murder is murder, but we were talking about a shooting at a school, so talking about gun murder is more relevant that talking about strangulation for example.

[Ducimus]

I think this thread should be dumped in with the gun control depository thread, since that is really what this thread is ultimately about. If a pro gun rights advocate starts a gun control thread, it gets dumped into the depository within a few hours. To keep things fair, i think if a pro gun control advocate also starts a thread, it too, should be dumped into the depository within a few hours.

[August]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

I think this thread should be dumped in with the gun control depository thread, since that is really what this thread is ultimately about. If a pro gun rights advocate starts a gun control thread, it gets dumped into the depository within a few hours. To keep things fair, i think if a pro gun control advocate also starts a thread, it too, should be dumped into the depository within a few hours.

+ 1

[TarJak]

So I'm an advocate for gun control am I?

Originally Posted by TarJak

So I'm an advocate for gun control am I?

I don't know.
You live in Convict Land so I would think you want Guns to over throw us that live in Free Land.


It's hard to get your point of view cause I can't stand on my head long enuff!