Re: GUNS: Accidental Deaths
Harvey Newstrom (newstrom@newstaffinc.com)
Thu, 4 Mar 1999 14:47:03 -0500
> Eric Ruud [ejruud@ucdavis.edu] wrote:
> >I refuse to believe that
> >a bathroom is more dangerous than a gun, which is what you seem to be
> >suggesting.
<mark@unicorn.com> wrote:
> Many, many more people are killed in bathroom accidents than
> gun accidents... that's reality.
You both are right. There is no contradiction in your claims.
Bathrooms are much safer than guns. The rate of bathroom accidents is
much less than gun accidents. Using a bathrooms is less likely to
result in an accident than using a gun. Bathrooms are used safely much
more often than guns are used safely.
However:
Bathrooms are used much more often than guns. More people use bathrooms
than guns. There are more bathrooms than there are guns. Everybody
must use the bathroom multiple times per day, while not everybody is
involved in a gun incident or activity multiple times per day.
Although the chance of an accident per use is lower with a bathroom than
with a gun, there are more total bathroom accidents than gun accidents.
Bathroom accidents are more frequent than gun accidents. In total,
bathroom accidents are statistically more likely than gun accidents.
Statistically speaking, a person is more likely to have an accident in
the bathroom than to have an accident with a gun.
Each side seems to be assuming that these conclusions are incompatible,
and therefore that the other side must be lying. There are no
incompatibilities here, and neither side is lying.
--
Harvey Newstrom <http://newstaffinc.com>
Author, Consultant, Engineer, Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.