Perspective Matters: Away Game Repost

Saw this image shared by Sheriff Jim Wilson on Facebook and decided to expand upon it a bit. Here's a comparison of our "gun death epidemic" to the other causes of death that, you know, actually make up the majority of deaths.

Perspective matters. This is made from slightly older CDC data and involves a bit of rounding, but it's very close to accurate still.

According to the most recent report, there were 33,636 deaths related to firearms. 21,175 were suicide (about half of all suicides), 505 were accidental, and 11,208 were homicide (there's a few missing, probably legally justifiable and police related and whatnot). It's also important to note that both homicide and suicide are OVERWHELMINGLY men's issues, but I'll discuss those in a different post to keep things focused.

That same newer CDC data provides further perspective;
Accidental falls accounted for 31,240 deaths. You are approximately equally likely to trip and fall and die as you are to die to a firearm. Remember that every time you take the stairs, stand on a balcony, or hike a path on a slope.

There were 48,545 deaths from poisoning, of which about 80% (38,836) were accidental. You (or your children) are 1.15x more likely to die of eating/drinking the wrong thing accidentally than by all gun death combined, and nearly equally likely to be deliberately poisoned as you are to be killed in an assault with a firearm.

33,804 people were killed in car accidents. Almost all gun death involves at least one willing participant (the criminal shooting, or the person committing suicide), while very few car accidents involve any willing participants.

Septicemia, a precursor to sepsis, also known as blood poisoning, accounts for 38,156 deaths. That is to say, death by infection when it spreads to the blood. That infection you have is more likely to lead to your death than all gun related deaths combined.

Alcohol related causes (everything from alcohol poisoning to a terminal case of "Hold my beer and watch this!") accounted for 29,001 deaths. It's important to note that alcohol is purely a luxury, and serves exclusively to inhibit the user and impair judgement. Enjoying a night at the bar is very nearly as likely to lead to your death as all gun death combined.

Ever go to the doctor? Around 400,000 people die to preventable medical errors every year in the US. http://www.healthcareitnews.com/…/deaths-by-medical-mistake… It seems it's likely rolled into other statistics on the CDC list, but taken separately it's the #3 killer of Americans, behind cancer and heart disease (584,881 and 611,105 respectively). Included in that are around 100,000 deaths from catching other infections acquired at the hospital http://www.nytimes.com/2007/…/19/washington/19hospital.html…

As a sidenote related to mass shootings and so-called assault weapons (a manufactured category that most of the people attempting to ban can't actually define); Even the US, which is supposedly the world capital of them, almost never breaks 100 deaths per year (using the FBI definition of 3+ deaths in a public place, not gang related). For reference, on average 183 people will be killed in animal attacks throughout the US based on data from 2001-2013 https://www.washingtonpost.com/…/chart-the-animals-that-ar…/

Every death is a tragedy, but with our sensationalist media it's desperately important to remind yourself where the real problems lie. Treated as a single monolithic category, guns amount to around 3% of all deaths in the US. While it's important not to overlook small causes lest they add up, guns are far from the overwhelming epidemic they are made out to be, and what problems are associated with them would be better solved by targeting the underlying causes (legacy of racism and disadvantage leading to gang violence, social mores that cause men to commit suicide vastly more often than women, and so on) is more effective than simply blaming the object.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/…/liberal-media-gun-grabbe…/ a somewhat biased site with a mostly unbiased collecting of data from the report for readability.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr64/nvsr64_02.pdf the CDC report on mortality released in feb 2016, using data from 2013ish.
http://www.youargue.com/…/38-putting-murder-by-gun-in-persp… a slightly older thing putting things in perspective with graphs and such.

BAG day shopping list

Having worked a full year at the highest pay I've ever received, my check back from Uncle Sam was the largest it's ever been (but not too large). And yet, I've got all my bases filled. I'm also a mite bit empty after paying various things to move to newer, more spacious digs. 

I think this BAG day I will be buying accessories and training things

A SIRT pistol and AR-15 bolt are high up the list.

A heavy, extended set of AR500 body armor, and possibly some manner of battlehat

A bigger safe, or at least a second one. Need some manner of ammo storage/organization in it or in addition.

Optics for my AR-15 and AR-57 (I've got a lot of rail space but in the interests of weight I'd like some kind of combo. Light/laser, optic/laser, etc.)

More mags, more ammo, before the rest of everyone notices that the stupidity of this political season and buys all the everything. Can never have too much, after all.

That said, the local mountain of geese has a nice looking Century Arms Draco pistol...

Right, using this; Also new upper

Been quiet for a while. Had topics but precious little motivation, due to big projects at work beating me down. Those are pretty much all caught up now, and a load off my shoulders. Got a new car, nice compact SUV with decent fuel economy and some good capabilities that I'll possibly get a picture of sometime when I can be bothered.

Also bought a new AR-15 upper back in December, finally snapped a picture of it

An AR-57 and a couple of mags, plus a box of ammo for a steal. I expressed interest in it and the store owners began a bidwar with each other to offer a low enough price to get it off their damn wall.

The ammo's labeled "police and military only" from way back when it was first introduced and ZOMG hype better ban it because it can shoot through tanks its so armor piercing. This lead the bf to ask if it was better than 5.56

"No, no it's not. It's actually worse in almost literally every way. About 1/10 the power, more expensive, less range, strange and slow (but neat!) reloads, and I couldn't be happier"

This gun is basically my stupid fondness for pistol carbines, SMGs, and PDWs given its ultimate form. Now it just needs optics and somewhere to actually test it out.

Sci Fi Saturday: Halo Landfall

Still phoning it in a bit, but starting to post things again.

The HALO universe is actually remarkably well thought out, and mostly serves as a decent guess at moderate future technology, although the timeline seems slightly off on occasion. The ODST armor is probably very near to the top of my favorite space armors on its approximate practicality and style.

Gun On Campus: My The Campus

Reportedly someone heard a bolt slam shut on campus and thought they saw the barrel of a gun they thought was an AK-47 in the bathroom. They ran, pulled the fire alarm, and that part of campus was quarantined. No shots or anything, official story about whatever happened still pending.

Given that I suspect 1/3 to 1/2 of the people at the school probably have shotguns or hunting rifles in their cars, an attack on said school seems rather ill conceived.

Further details when they're available, to determine if this is legit or not.

Lessons from my childhood: Cartoons imparting valuable knowledge

Seen on the book of face, possibly from Michael Z Williamson or one of his commentors. The series was often questionable, but it had its moments, and most of those moments involved Mr. Bannon kicking ass.

Motor Monday slightly

So, the area where I work has several MRAPs. You know, the big military truck. Or, if you don't know, these.

Apparently on Friday, one of my coworkers new to the company was driving home, and was passed by a convoy of them. He snapped a picture of one of them. Another one of them then sideswiped him, which was helpfully caught by the dashcam of the squad behind him, and he's totally not at fault. The tires scratched up the side of his car, but the car itself is fine.

Now he gets to engage in the cycle of bureaucracy to try and get some manner of insurance or payment, because the cops were on their way to a raid and couldn't stop beyond a single member going "Yeah ok so I'll file a report but we can't stop call this number Monday bye."


I've seen them myself, I know they've got at least two of them and aren't afraid to bust them out for... I'm not really sure what they're doing that warrants a full on MRAP, there's regions of the area that aren't particularly great but I don't think they warrant quite that much truck...