The fact of the matter is that it’s not as common as you’d figure based on watching TV and the news. It’s been pointed out that in Miami, FL during the time the show Miami Vice took place, there was only one crime committed by a person with a machine gun - and that guy was a cop! From watching the show it seemed like everyone in Miami had machine guns and got in big shootouts all the time, against cops with handguns who kicked their asses. The drug dealers in that show were worse than stormtroopers.

I know a lot of people. Only two of them have been shot. One was a police officer trainee who accidentally shot himself because of improper firearms safety procedures. The other was a Marine and he was hit in his vest (but not on the armored part). His wound broke the skin, but he was back in action after some stitches.

I read a rundown one time of probabilities of various kinds of incidents (like getting shot). It was so low that it wasn’t even on the list.

According to the CDC in the US, here were the leading causes of death from 2004:

Heart disease: 654,092
Cancer: 550,270
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 150,147
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 123,884
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 108,694
Diabetes: 72,815
Alzheimer’s disease: 65,829
Influenza/Pneumonia: 61,472
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 42,762
Septicemia: 33,464

Getting shot isn’t anywhere on the list.

One interesting stat though is that 90% of gun crime happens in 3% of US counties - the 3 percent with dense urban population. It’s no coincidence that the illegal drug trade is prevalant in these areas and that gangsters, with no legal way to resolve business disputes around their ilicit trade tend to shoot each other a lot to resolve their differences.

In the US, if you’re not involved with gangs or drugs, you have a very slim chance of getting shot.

That’s one of the reasons that mother government has focused less on gun control of late and more about food control such as banning trans-fats in NYC. I wonder if the Mafia will start a black market in foods containing trans-fats now…

And cauliflower.

I’m terrified of cauliflower.

Watching a lot of TV. and main stream movies does desensitize one to the concept of violence and the emotional disposition to it

I think. I mean, I don’t have any stats or anything.

tallyhoe!