Your perceptions about the experience of the average American are a long way from accurate. You might want to take a hard look at the media you’re consuming.
EDIT: I have now discovered that the fastest way to kick the Lemmy hornet’s nest is to say you aren’t living in constant terror of being mowed down at random. How do you people function out in public? Do you even go out in public? This place is a fucking hole.
Earlier this month, I had a parent-teacher meeting with lots of parents and she had to explain to one parent to please stop allowing her 2nd grader to come with weapons. The parent kept putting a butterfly knife in the kid’s bookbag and she explained that they are doing everything they can to ensure safety, but now when a 2nd grader has a knife.
People are fucking nuts. You have to think that at some point the thought would occur to them that they shouldn’t be slipping a knife into little Timmy’s backpack.
According to a quick search I could only find 2 cases of tornadoes hitting US schools in the last 25 years, giving an average of about 1 school tornado hit per 12 years. I believe it’s fair to say that was overblown.
However, in the same 25 years there have been over 400 school shootings in the US, meaning there is an average of about 1 school shooting per month. I’d say that’s a pretty reasonable fear.
Also one is an “act of god” while the other is entirely man-made. Keep the thought and prayers for the one god is actually responsible for.
When people hear “school shootings” they imagine events like Columbine, even when that’s not what’s being counted. Literally every time a gun is fired at a school regardless of circumstances, it’s a school shooting. This includes cases where nobody is injured, the event happens after hours, or the people involved are unaffiliated with the school. Seriously, the NPR article I linked mentions a case where a guy killed himself in the parking lot of a building owned by the school district (that had not had students in it for years). That counted as a school shooting.
The sort of event people imagine IS more common than tornadoes, and even stupid, unrelated incidents that result in injuries is ALSO more common than tornadoes. The fact remains that there are not 400 Columbines a year. The chances of a particular student dying of any violent means on school property is vanishingly small. People worried about their kids getting killed in a school shooting should also worry about meteor and lightning strikes.
Not ridiculous, the odds of either event injuring or killing any particular individual are vanishingly small. A person who worries about school shootings should be positively terrified of climbing ladders or crossing a busy road.
People are really bad at contextualizing risk. Just look at the “stranger danger” scare.
Clearly I wasn’t using the figures in that article because I said it was 400 over 25 years, not 240 in a single year. Even in that article they say they were able to confirm at least 12 shootings in that year, supporting my estimated average of 1 per month.
Also children don’t have to be actually shot to be traumatized by a shooting. The number of children affected by school shootings is thousands of times higher than the number of injuries or deaths.
Media bias is one thing for sure, but there are data showing that gun related death are much higher in the USA than whole of Europe (except, well… Ukraine).
I’m not arguing that, especially because that figure includes suicides.
I’ve noticed that (especially on Lemmy) people outside the US think we’re dodging bullets as we go about our days. Really, everybody is just doing their own thing and minding their own business.
I’m american. Bold of you to think I have access to psychiatric care. Oh wait no that was just the MeDiA telling me that I don’t, not my decades of life experience
They literally gave no details about their perception. They might just pity people with kids who worry about school shootings which is a valid thing to feel and a valid thing to pity.
There were 327 school shootings in the 2021-22 school year in the US. That’s more shootings than there are days in a school year. If we had an event wherein a known serial killer publicly tried to murder someone literally every day, reckon folks would be a might bit more concerned about it?
What I’m saying is this is a silly comparison for you to make.
And in that example, people would still be foolish to panic.
The US is a nation that covers half a continent and has a third of a billion people. The lifetime odds of getting murdered by a stranger versus literally any other way to die?
Any person who rides in an automobile runs a greater risk of death. If you’re not clutching at your sheets in terror at the thought of getting in a car, you shouldn’t worry about getting killed by a random person.
“shooting my gun into the air actually poses a statistically insignificant risk to the public at large, so no sane person would REALLY be worried about falling bullets.”
Who are you to police other people’s concern anyway? I’d bet not a parent!
Oof… Man, to live in the US. I don’t envy you guys, though things aren’t really going the right direction here in the Netherlands, either.
Your perceptions about the experience of the average American are a long way from accurate. You might want to take a hard look at the media you’re consuming.
EDIT: I have now discovered that the fastest way to kick the Lemmy hornet’s nest is to say you aren’t living in constant terror of being mowed down at random. How do you people function out in public? Do you even go out in public? This place is a fucking hole.
Earlier this month, I had a parent-teacher meeting with lots of parents and she had to explain to one parent to please stop allowing her 2nd grader to come with weapons. The parent kept putting a butterfly knife in the kid’s bookbag and she explained that they are doing everything they can to ensure safety, but now when a 2nd grader has a knife.
People are fucking nuts. You have to think that at some point the thought would occur to them that they shouldn’t be slipping a knife into little Timmy’s backpack.
Closing the asylums was a mistake.
There’s a child in my family who has monthly school shooter drills
I’m american. Is my perception of the average American correct?
And when I was a kid we had tornado drills. Schools got hit by tornados, but it was a freak incident that was ultimately an overblown fear.
If only there was some parallel we could draw here…
If only…
According to a quick search I could only find 2 cases of tornadoes hitting US schools in the last 25 years, giving an average of about 1 school tornado hit per 12 years. I believe it’s fair to say that was overblown.
However, in the same 25 years there have been over 400 school shootings in the US, meaning there is an average of about 1 school shooting per month. I’d say that’s a pretty reasonable fear.
Also one is an “act of god” while the other is entirely man-made. Keep the thought and prayers for the one god is actually responsible for.
And that figure is inflated. The School Shootings That Weren’t https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/08/27/640323347/the-school-shootings-that-werent
When people hear “school shootings” they imagine events like Columbine, even when that’s not what’s being counted. Literally every time a gun is fired at a school regardless of circumstances, it’s a school shooting. This includes cases where nobody is injured, the event happens after hours, or the people involved are unaffiliated with the school. Seriously, the NPR article I linked mentions a case where a guy killed himself in the parking lot of a building owned by the school district (that had not had students in it for years). That counted as a school shooting.
The sort of event people imagine IS more common than tornadoes, and even stupid, unrelated incidents that result in injuries is ALSO more common than tornadoes. The fact remains that there are not 400 Columbines a year. The chances of a particular student dying of any violent means on school property is vanishingly small. People worried about their kids getting killed in a school shooting should also worry about meteor and lightning strikes.
It’s insane that a gun is even fired off in school that often. What circumstances could make that OK
It isn’t OK, every single case is a crime.
There was a newsworthy incident where a cop managed to pull off a negligent discharge. Nobody got hurt, but guess what? Still a school shooting.
The children have nothing to fear because it’s actually illegal for bullets to miss their intended target.
So what? Still proves that your comparison to tornado drills is, well, utterly ridiculous and without merit…
Not ridiculous, the odds of either event injuring or killing any particular individual are vanishingly small. A person who worries about school shootings should be positively terrified of climbing ladders or crossing a busy road.
People are really bad at contextualizing risk. Just look at the “stranger danger” scare.
Clearly I wasn’t using the figures in that article because I said it was 400 over 25 years, not 240 in a single year. Even in that article they say they were able to confirm at least 12 shootings in that year, supporting my estimated average of 1 per month.
Also children don’t have to be actually shot to be traumatized by a shooting. The number of children affected by school shootings is thousands of times higher than the number of injuries or deaths.
Media bias is one thing for sure, but there are data showing that gun related death are much higher in the USA than whole of Europe (except, well… Ukraine).
Gun related death per 100k inhabitants, in 2019: USA=10, Netherlands=0.5. Gun deaths by country - WorldPopulationReview.com
I’m not arguing that, especially because that figure includes suicides.
I’ve noticed that (especially on Lemmy) people outside the US think we’re dodging bullets as we go about our days. Really, everybody is just doing their own thing and minding their own business.
You know no one thinks that
Are you high? Is this your first day on Lemmy?
Cool more shit no one believes. Feel better now?
What the actual fuck is that supposed to even mean? Are you off your meds?
I’m american. Bold of you to think I have access to psychiatric care. Oh wait no that was just the MeDiA telling me that I don’t, not my decades of life experience
They literally gave no details about their perception. They might just pity people with kids who worry about school shootings which is a valid thing to feel and a valid thing to pity.
And I’m saying most level-headed people don’t worry about school shootings.
While I’m sure other parents do worry about that, they’re also the kind of people who worry about serial killers.
If you go around invalidating common experiences, expect not to be well received
If somebody worries about serial killers they have an objectively bad grasp on reality.
There were 327 school shootings in the 2021-22 school year in the US. That’s more shootings than there are days in a school year. If we had an event wherein a known serial killer publicly tried to murder someone literally every day, reckon folks would be a might bit more concerned about it?
What I’m saying is this is a silly comparison for you to make.
And in that example, people would still be foolish to panic.
The US is a nation that covers half a continent and has a third of a billion people. The lifetime odds of getting murdered by a stranger versus literally any other way to die?
Any person who rides in an automobile runs a greater risk of death. If you’re not clutching at your sheets in terror at the thought of getting in a car, you shouldn’t worry about getting killed by a random person.
“shooting my gun into the air actually poses a statistically insignificant risk to the public at large, so no sane person would REALLY be worried about falling bullets.”
Who are you to police other people’s concern anyway? I’d bet not a parent!
What, about gun violence? Are you saying the shootings are under reported?
Are you nuts? How could you possibly conclude that that’s what I’m saying?