44% of Americans Know Someone Killed by Gun Headline (seriously?)

[IronMonster]

I bet 44% of Americans know someone who is a convicted violent criminal that shouldn't be out on the street...

That's just nuts, its got to be closer to 95%

 

[Kruel J]

Ah, overpopulated country/world. I'm sure we ALL know somebody. OR at least somebody who knows somebody. What does that mean anyway? Not a darn thing. Live in a cabin in Montana with zero contact with humanity and you'll dodge this bullet. Maybe.

 

[awshoot]

You guys want to be friends with me. I don't know anyone that was shot ever except a guy in the next. Bay at speed steel.

I'm lucky. You can rub my head if you like.

I never imagined. Maybe I've led a charmed life. The closest I ever came was at a gravel pit shooting range in Idaho when some yahoo started shooting at a spot about 15' to one side of me while I and some others were setting up targets. After about three yells he stopped though. It was the sort of place where everyone would agree it was target time and stop shooting. I never confronted the guy though, thinking a remote gravel pit in Idaho with lots of guns around was not the place to get into an argument.

 

[Goosebrown]

I never imagined. Maybe I've led a charmed life. The closest I ever came was at a gravel pit shooting range in Idaho when some yahoo started shooting at a spot about 15' to one side of me while I and some others were setting up targets. After about three yells he stopped though.

Me too. I am sort of shocked to hear so many people here knowing people that have been shot.

 

[Koda]

I was a little surprised myself, then I remembers a guy I worked with years ago that was shot out hunting. He lived, when I asked to see the exit wound he told me it was his 'other a$$hole'.... looked terrible. Shot with an elk rifle in the gut.

 

[Hang-Man]

I could tell you that my own Dad and his youngest brother my favorite uncle Both shot themselves in the head, two other family members killed themselves with pre meditated over doses, But what does it matter they are dead by different methods.

 

[Kruel J]

I could tell you that my own Dad and his youngest brother my favorite uncle Both shot themselves in the head, two other family members killed themselves with pre meditated over doses, But what does it matter they are dead by different methods.

I'm sorry brother. I truly am. Their footsteps and anger are not a path for you to follow. Remember that.

 

[Koda]

suicide is not a gun control statistic. And I say that with all sympathy to those of us who've lost a friend or loved one to suicide, including myself.

 

[Hang-Man]

Oh, Thanks Kruejl, I guess I'm a lot tougher mentally than they were, I say they were cowards to go the way they did and we never know how powerful pain is in an individual, physical or metal pain can be SO excruciating as to cause some to take the easy way out.

 

[Ed Guinn]

Ah, overpopulated country/world. I'm sure we ALL know somebody. OR at least somebody who knows somebody. What does that mean anyway? Not a darn thing. Live in a cabin in Montana with zero contact with humanity and you'll dodge this bullet. Maybe.

I would agree in theory except for the astonishing capability of satellite surveillance available to anyone with enough tech savvy to access it...

I also agree with etrain16. Statistics are being presented as fact rather than opinion by anti's in an attempt to control the message.

Sadly, many of us have in fact lost friends and relatives to war, accidents, carelessness or crime - and to use these statistics to further the cause to eradicate our sovereign rights to self defense as constitutionally codified must be recognized for what it is. What would you call it?

 

[Hang-Man]

TYRANNY , ED is what it is. The time to Hunt the Phony anti gunner law makers is getting closer, Taking them with OUT a gun will Not even be a challenge, feed for Dogs N Hogs or Biodiesel feed stock is all they are good for. Yeah, I hate them with a Passion.

 

[Provincial]

One guy I knew shot himself by accident while showing off a semi-auto pistol during lunch. He was in a car at a drive-in restaurant and was handling the gun after eating a bunch of greasy french fries.

 

[albin25]

It's a statistically meaningless question in that 1 gunshot individual is known by multiple people...
...an example of that sort of question; How many people know of someone being injured while boating, or from dropping a bowling ball on their toe, or someone who died while skydiving, or from a fatal fall. Depending on who got hurt/dead, the people that know him could number in the hundreds or even the thousands.

Think of a small town of 12,000 people...A guy dies falling off his barn roof doing repairs. Just because the whole town knows him, doesn't mean he died 12,000 times. Trying to draw conclusions because 100% of that town's population knew someone who died while using a roofing hammer, has no validity in making decisions on how dangerous it is to live in that town...or anywhere else.

A survey is very easily manipulated by using dishonest questions, given to rigged demographics, to get dishonest results, with meaningless conclusions, all intended to be analyzed by fools with an agenda. They can't even be honest about the "margin of error" and most pollsters just randomly assign it by sample size so it seems more accurate
than it is.

 

[bbbass]

When I was in hi-school 300 or so years ago, all us kids knew a guy nicknamed Red... he had red hair plus a massive addiction to seconal. Red was famous for passing out. Anyway, kids was hanging at the Taco Bell and someone gets all gangish, Red jumps out of his low rider Tbird with a .22 target pistol thereby shooting himself in the leg. We all got tired of feeling sorry for Red... his addiction, his problem.

Other guy I knew laid his Savage 99 .308 on the seat and over his leg while road hunting for deer down around Chemult, loaded of course. He hits a massive bump and the rifle comes down with a bang... blew the top of his thigh off... drove himself out. Stupid bastige.

Been shot with bb gun more times than you would think... it was just us friends playing sniper.

 

[Wombat of Doom]

I've been seeing a headline that 44% of Americans know someone killed by gun. Example: Pew: 44 percent of Americans know someone who has been shot The full report and the questions asked are here: 1. The demographics of gun ownership The specific question being reported can be seen in context here: http://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-co...W25-W26-combined-topline-chkd-for-release.pdf

ASK WAVE 26: INJUREDA
Not counting yourself, has someone you PERSONALLY KNOW ever been shot, either accidentally or intentionally, or not?
Apr 4-18 2017
Yes: 44
No: 56
No answer: *
​

I see two major problems with this question right off the bat:

1. How many knuckleheads answered "yes" because they read about Dick Cheney loading a buddy with birdshot. Yes it says "personally" but people often hear what they want to hear. Antis may also be prone to lie about this because they are so emotionally invested in the issue.
   
2. Worse than that, it does not distinguish between war related shootings and non-war shootings, and that's a huge problem if the point is to assess gun safety in America. What this question does is push a narrative that says guns make us unsafe and suggests as evidence that basically half of America knows someone killed or wounded by a gun. But if we are talking about gun safety in America, what happens in Iraq or Vietnam is not pertinent to the question and without that added detail, it is impossible to know that the answers refer to incidents that happened inside or outside of America.
3. Aside from veterans' likely increased exposure to shootings while at war, It also fails to take the simple expedient of asking where the shooting took place. It is entirely possible that an immigrant from or a non-military visitor to a chaotic and violent region was included in the survey and without knowing where that shooting took place, this question is simply importing foreign gun violence thus padding the numbers.

Given these structural flaws to the query, it is totally clear that it was designed to make this look like much more of a problem than it is.

Anyway, I know one's personal experience is not data, merely anecdote, but as a non-vet, I don't personally know anyone who has ever been killed or wounded by a firearm (beyond slide bite) and so far as I know, neither do any of my long time friends with one exception, and that all relates to his experiences in Vietnam.

I knew several people shot and killed. If I answered honestly, and excluded wars, the number of people I know who have been shot is going to be high. In fact, in the very strictest sense of the word, I have been shot. (as a kid, large caliber bullet, extreme range, hit big toe. Bruises only.) I grew up in an area with a lot of gang violence. Very weird scenario, and probably shouldn't count for anything. It plowed up the ground on approach in a furrow that looked like Bugs and Daffy's approach I had seen a particular looney tunes episode that morning.

But one of the kids I grew up with was hit by a stray bullet from a drive-by when he was 14. He was a good kid. He was uninvolved with any gang.

I worked at a ministry in inner city LA. I spoke at the funeral of a kid who got shot in a drug deal whom I knew. If you did a survey like this in downtown Chicago or LA, makes sense. We all know or are aquainted with hundreds of people.

The wording would also include suicide.

 

[etrain16]

The simplest thing to remember is this - if you hear or read anything that starts with or includes:

* "statistics say"
* "studies say"
* "polling data says"
* "experts say"
even "sciences says"

Know that you are likely being manipulated by someone with some agenda. All of those things require money to fund them, and people don't fund studies, etc., unless it's going to benefit them in some way. Assume there is an inherent bias in all of these things and you'll be better off. I tend to be a skeptic by nature, so it serves me well when this stuff comes up. Want to impress me with a study, science, poll, then be prepared to cross verify that data from numerous independent sources from lots of different backgrounds with different biases. And, if at all possible, do it in a way that doesn't benefit you in some way, such as funding further research, maybe then I'll believe you. And therein lies the slippery slope. We require people like scientists to publish, and if we like the results or they favor us in some way, we support them, don't like them and it dies on the vine.

How about folks just use a little common sense and stop wasting time on all this stuff. It's all used as tools to get your money, your time or your vote.

Dang, looks like I'm still in a mood today....

 

[nammac]

The simplest thing to remember is this - if you hear or read anything that starts with or includes:

* "statistics say"
* "studies say"
* "polling data says"
* "experts say"
even "sciences says"

Know that you are likely being manipulated by someone with some agenda. All of those things require money to fund them, and people don't fund studies, etc., unless it's going to benefit them in some way. Assume there is an inherent bias in all of these things and you'll be better off. I tend to be a skeptic by nature, so it serves me well when this stuff comes up. Want to impress me with a study, science, poll, then be prepared to cross verify that data from numerous independent sources from lots of different backgrounds with different biases. And, if at all possible, do it in a way that doesn't benefit you in some way, such as funding further research, maybe then I'll believe you. And therein lies the slippery slope. We require people like scientists to publish, and if we like the results or they favor us in some way, we support them, don't like them and it dies on the vine.

How about folks just use a little common sense and stop wasting time on all this stuff. It's all used as tools to get your money, your time or your vote.

Dang, looks like I'm still in a mood today....

It's the anticipated heat... Stay cool and well hydrated...

 

[etrain16]

It's the anticipated heat... Stay cool and well hydrated...

You have no idea how true that is. I hate the heat - my people come from places like Sweden, Denmark, England, Ireland and Germany. I'm genetically programmed to avoid the sun and heat except for 3 days out of the year I definitely will be enjoying AC over the next few days!

 

[wired]

I have a friend who's wife shot him in the shoulder. It Wasn't an accident and yes, they are still married.

Had another very close friend who's husband shot her 4 times in the gut with a 9mm after beating and raping her before shooting himself in the head . Both dead.

Grandmothers brother shot himself in the head. Not an accident.

I'm well into the 44%

 

[bbbass]

I worked at a ministry in inner city LA. I spoke at the funeral of a kid who got shot in a drug deal whom I knew.

When I worked in L.A. in the 70s, stabbing was the thing. Folks couldn't afford guns.