caretaker

I got tear gassed at home, (through no fault of my own) and it's a memorable experience. Not just a little, either, (brings a tear to my eye just thinking about it), they pitched 3 cannisters clearly marked for outdoor use only into the rear apartment of the rooming house I lived in, because they didn't have any flash-bangs. Since it was -35 and there were now 3 broken windows, the central heating put it through the whole house real fast.

Pulaski

OMG!

BEVS

I got tear gassed in the South of France . I was just on the fringe of the wrong place at a wrong time. Painful.

caretaker

I watched the vid of OGK earlier, he is looking better! Good to see.

BEVS

It is .

Pulaski

Anywhere in France is the wrong place at any time!

Hiro11

"Gun deaths" is a misleading statistic. It's worth breaking down what's actually happening, here's a good summary:
https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/past-tolls

Based on this, in 2019:
39,451 gun deaths
24,090 of which were suicide
That leaves 15,361 gun deaths
Of these, somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 (numbers are highly unreliable) were shot and killed by police. Let's go with 1,250.
That leaves 14,111 gun deaths.
1,583 of those were defensive (again, this is debatable, but let's go with the number on the page).
That leave 12,528 gun deaths
505 of those were accidents.
That leaves 12,023 gun deaths. This seems to be an accurate representation of deliberate murder committed by non-police with a gun in 2019.

12k is a horrific number, no denying that. Still, it's a different story than the 39k headline number. Also, this breakdown is helpful indefining strategies to take action and address the issue.

Also, others have pointed out that gun crime is highly localized in the US. This is very true. For example, according to the FBI New Orleans had the highest murder rate of any city in the US from 2010-2015 at about 47/100k. The rate falls off pretty rapidly after that, for example the #20 city is Tulsa with about 13/100K, almost 75% lower. San Jose is the safest large American city with a murder rate around 4/100k. Outside of major cities, the rate is far lower. Here's an (admittedly older) article that has tons of detail:
https://www.citylab.com/equity/2012/...violence/4171/

Pulaski

It would be interesting to see break down that number (yes, I know the numbers would be quite fuzzy, with overlapping descriptions), to show how much is related to drug and gang activity. My semi-informed guess would be that between 2/3 and 3/4 of those killings would be related to inter-gang criminal activity or the shooting of someone engaged in drug dealing by someone else similarly engaged.

kimilseung

2/2 same pub
This original post was a family evening out, I just went to the same pub with work colleagues (end of the school year). First time since lock down, first time since the incident of the original post. and another shooting. The pub is on a corner, an intersection and a driver was shot, leading to a crash. By the time everyone arrived, medics and police, and we tried to leave the bar, one colleague had to get a lift and leave his car, I had to walk several blocks to get to my car. We just had this years graduation celebrations, and for all I know the person shot was from our school, as last Thursday, a 2020 graduate was shot dead.
https://www.king5.com/article/news/c...6-ae4bf246d555

Lion in Winter

I still think about the boy from my son's class, shot in the head and killed two weeks after graduation.

It's easy to just think of the stats as stats. But of course they're not, they're real people.

kimilseung

Four shot, two dead.

OldJuddian

When I read of shootings I always think it is 'elsewhere'. But I just realized that this is King County, where I live. So I really empathize with "how close the lines are".

A tragic incident, and sadly not an isolated one.

caretaker

My Aunt and Uncle lived in White Center, and I roamed all over the place when I was about 15. It was very safe and quiet then, and I had to take the bus downtown to find any real excitement.