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Comment by osullivj | Hacker News Reader

I'm always amazed by how few shooting fatalities there are in the US. 330M population, 33K gun deaths per annum [1]. And two thirds of the gun deaths are suicides. So that's only 10K homicides per annum. That's 1 in 33K. In the UK we have 65M population, and 800 murders per annum. That's 1 in 81K. Given that the US is so heavily armed I'd expect the gun death rate to be much higher. IMHO that demonstrates that the average person is equal to the responsibility of firearm ownership.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_Sta...

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You can also factor out gang-related gun homocides since your average American/tourist is not involved in organized crime. Basically, the chances of being killed randomly by a mass shooting or random murderer are extremely tiny.

I will say though that even ignoring gun homicides, our average homicide rate in the USA is rather high compared to other western countries.

Tiny is relative is it not? Relative to Japany chances of getting shot are extremely high. It's also not just about getting shot, it's about being near it and having to worry about it. I've been in at least 3 shooting situtstions in my time in the USA. Once in Westwood waiting in line for movie, once in Santa Monica while eating, once in Mira Loma as a kid and if I add friends and family they've all had experiencea. They weren't shot but they should not have to we even worry about the proximity.

Go live in a safe country for a few years then come back and you'll feel what you've become insensitive to

> Relative to Japan, chances of getting shot are extremely high.

Right, but still... https://xkcd.com/1252/

Something doesn't look right in your numbers. In fact the Wikipedia page you quoted includes a "Gun-related homicide and suicide rates in high-income OECD countries" chart that doesn't match your conclusion.

I checked the ONS statistics[1] for England and Wales (including Scotland and Northern Ireland shouldn't make a huge difference) and it says: "There were 29 homicide victims killed by shooting in the year ending March 2018, three fewer than the previous year. The number of homicides by shooting has fluctuated between 21 and 32 over the last six years."

Are you sure that you aren't comparing apples to oranges, so gun deaths in the US against all homicides in the UK regardless of the method? Another quote from the same paper suggests that might be the case: "There were 726 homicides in the year ending March 2018, 20 more (3% increase) than in the previous year."

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeand...

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