Is Any Place In This Country - Safe?....

[global1]

Churches, schools, theaters, shopping malls, food stores, synagogues, retail stores, shopping downtown, commuting to work, restaurants, bars, buses, trains, airports, hotels, parks, beaches, gyms, driving down the highway, hair salons, hospitals, nursing homes, barber shops, walking down the street in your own neighborhood, out enjoying an afternoon walking in your town or city, sitting in your own home watching TV, playing outside on your front steps or lawn, etc - and the list goes on an on.

And you can probably name more that I have failed to mention here.

What do all of these places have in common?

Really - all of these mentioned above have been involved with shooting deaths.

It really becomes hard to identify places where one feels safe anymore. What are the safest places in this country? I'm hard pressed to name safe places. Oh - maybe an NRA convention.

When are we going to wake up? When will something be done about all these senseless killings and deaths?

It's getting really scary to go out anywhere these days. In some respects - quarantining in your home for the pandemic - might be safer - but instead of a gun you die from the virus.

[SYFROYH]

1. I feel safe in all those places you listed.

[viva la]

3. I never feel completely safe anyway

That's what I get for growing up female!

[SYFROYH]

4. Right. I suppose I should have said safe as can be expected.

There is risk everywhere.

[BlackSkimmer]

5. I'm female, and while I'm always aware of my surroundings, I generally feel safe in all those

places named too.

[viva la]

14. I suppose it matters where you live--

My city has a high crime rate, not to mention bad traffic with bad drivers.

I'm just glad I never have to do online dating. That seems like the most risky option, though dating of any kind can be risky.
Most people are not bad. However, it only takes one....

And with these mass shooters, it's all so unpredictable. That's the purpose of terrorism, I guess-- to make us all think that something bad could happen any minute. Usually it won't, but then it does, and there's no way to avoid it.

Must Stop Watching True Crime Shows!!!

[BlackSkimmer]

25. Lol! I never allow myself to watch Dateline at night!

[viva la]

26. I've learned a lot from Dateline!

1. It's almost always the spouse.
2. "Missionary" is the most murderous of all professions.
3. Small-town feuds lead to generations of murders, especially when there's intermarriage between the Montagues and Capulets.
4. The Devil goes to church twice a week! He usually runs the Wednesday morning Men's Bible Study, in fact.
5. Never ever ever trust an "all is well" text that seems to come from a missing person's phone- insist on a Facetime!
6. "She said she wanted it like 50 Shades of Gray" = rape/murder.
7. When someone wants to hire a killer, they'll ask a half-dozen friends and acquaintances. Half will laugh, half will negotiate. NONE will ever call the police.
8. If you've killed your spouse, you can get off by saying it was self-defense, even if you had a gun and the other had nothing.

Hmm. I think I need some less a-moral shows to watch.

[global1]

6. But It's A Crap Shoot - Isn't It....

Sounds like you might be a gambler.

But I guess - if you know when to hold'em; know when to fold'em; know when to walk away; and know when to run ----- one might have a chance.

We always hear the monumental odds of winning a multi-million dollar lottery - that sets a new record.

I wonder if anyone ever calculated the odds of the probability of an American getting killed by a gun in America?

[SYFROYH]

10. 0.000067 percent chance, roughly

20,000 homicides by gun per year (sometimes more, sometimes less) divided by 300,000,000 million peeps.

Getting shot and killed by someone is a really unlikely event.

Mass shootings are tragic events that deserve to be in the media, but that also causes people to think it's more likely to happen to them.

[viva la]

15. Compare to 40K auto crash deaths a year in the US--

And think of the many many safety measures we take for that, even though per-mile our risk is pretty low. There are laws against driving drunk, safety devices, constant research on making cars and roads safer. There are lots of limits on the size, speed, and lethality of autos.

The governments do almost nothing, however, to remediate the also relatively high incidence of gun deaths. (There are also 25K/year gun deaths from accidents and suicide.)

Congress restricts even the funding for research on guns as a public health problem.

Auto deaths go down per mile every year, but gun deaths are going up every year.

I think the difference for me is-- I can do a lot to limit the risk on the highways. But other than not hanging out with people who have guns (a big safety tactic!), there's really almost nothing I can do to limit the risk of being shot. It's a low chance, but it's also out of my control.

[sarisataka]

17. That is the single year

Which doesn't account for lifetime risk.

I did some calculations for lifetime odds and came up with 1 in 257 of being a firearm homicide victim. It is a rough calculation but I believe I am close. (Chance of being a mass shooting victim is close to 1 in 5,500)

Things less likely to kill you:
Drowning 1 in 1,134
Bike accident 1 in 4,919
Air/space accident 1 in 5,051
Sun/heat exposure 1 in 13,729
Lightning 1 in 79,746

Things more likely to kill you:
Heart disease 1 in 5
Cancer 1 in 7
Hospital Infections 1 in 38
Car accidents 1 in 84
Fall 1 in 218

[WarGamer]

21. even smaller if you don't know the shooter.

The vast majority of murders are by people known to the victim.

[Ferrets are Cool]

29. I'm sure those people in Buffalo felt safe too.

If you feel safe, it is from a false sense of security

[SYFROYH]

31. Is it false? Safe is relevative.

If you're scared of dying in a mass shooting based on the odds, then you're scared of many many things.

Are you scared?

[Ferrets are Cool]

32. That wasn't the question.

The question was Do you feel safe?

[SYFROYH]

33. I answered that in Reply #1. Yes I feel safe

You responded that I have a false sense of security and I responded that actual safety is relative.

My "sense of security" is not false.

[Ferrets are Cool]

34. Have a wonderful, safe day

[viva la]

2. More guns than people.

And many of those guns are owned by angry and vengeful people.

[MineralMan]

7. Well, every place and activity CAN be unsafe.

However, most places are safe, except when some demented, angry person decides to make some place a scene for a planned disaster. So, what is one to do?

The statistical reality is that you can go about your usual affairs, do your usual things, engage in whatever activities you normally do, and not experience some deadly encounter.

So, we need to focus on those who perpetrate those violent, deadly actions, not on the places where they happen. If someone is bent on killing people, any place could be unsafe, but almost none of us will ever experience such a thing.

When such senseless violence occurs, we learn of it almost instantly. Why? Because it is so rare and so out of place.

Maintaining some level of situational awareness is important, of course. Having some sort of plan for what to do in the extremely unlikely event you might possibly encounter is a good idea. Hiding away and not living your life is not the answer. Just be aware, and go about your business and recreation. Your chances of being involved in one of those situation are vanishingly small.

[Ocelot II]

8. The actual likelihood of a shooting occurring in a particular place

at the particular time you're there is extremely small, so there's no real need to stop going anywhere. Sad to say, the pattern seems to be of attacks mostly on locations frequented by non-white people - but even those places are not the only targets, since there are people besides white supremacists who have their own, other crazy axes to grind, like the guy who shot up the music festival in Las Vegas. I guess shopping or doing other things at a time when not many other people will be present provides the most safety from mass shooters, but now you might be more vulnerable to muggers. I don't plan to do anything any differently.

[AlexSFCA]

9. yes, Hawaii - only one state is safe

[Celerity]

19. that isn't backed up by the data in terms of murder & violent crime per capita (13 states are safer)

as of the 2018 stats.

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/01/13/most-dangerous-states-in-america-violent-crime-murder-rate/40968963/

snip

safest to most unsafe

50. Maine
49. Vermont
48. New Hampshire
47. Virginia
46. Connecticut
45. New Jersey
44. Kentucky
43. Wyoming
42. Rhode Island
41. Minnesota
40. Idaho
39. Utah
38. Mississippi
37. Hawaii
36. Iowa
35. Ohio
34. North Dakota
33. Nebraska
32. Oregon
31. West Virginia
30. Wisconsin
29. Pennsylvania
28. Washington
27. Georgia
26. Massachusetts
25. New York
24. Montana
23. North Carolina
22. Indiana
21. Florida
20. Colorado
19. Illinois
18. South Dakota
17. Texas
16. Delaware
15. Kansas
14. California
13. Michigan
12. Oklahoma
11. Maryland
10. Arizona
9. South Carolina
8. Missouri
7. Alabama
6. Louisiana
5. Nevada
4. Arkansas
3. Tennessee
2. New Mexico
1. Alaska

[SoonerPride]

11. NRA headquarters are safe.

No guns allowed.

[Captain Stern]

12. You're far more likely to die on the drive to any of those places, than being shot at 1 of them n/t

[Effete Snob]

13. Do you ride in automobiles?

Do you use stairs?

[viva la]

16. well, yeah, but I can hold on to the bannister...

and wear my seatbelt and drive under the speed limit.

The risks you can't mitigate are the scary ones.

[MuseRider]

18. We went to watch our youngest

get his Masters degree on Sunday. I could not stop thinking about that. It was at Royals stadium and it just felt odd and creepy no matter where we were in that crowd. It was, of course, fine but we all felt just a little creepy about it.

[WarGamer]

20. Just my opinion...

be "aware" of the danger of being caught in the middle of a mass shooting but don't obsess.

For example, California has lost 32 people to mass shootings in 2022 so far.

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting?page=1&sort=asc&order=State

The population is 39 million people...

So ignoring ALL other data and over-simplifying...

That's less than a million to one chance of being killed in a mass shooting so far in 2022.

Does that mean "accept it"?? No way. Do ALL that can be done to reduce gun violence.

But don't let it give you psychological harm and turn you into a recluse.



Note: 1 million to 1 is still scary... a few years ago I won a prize at the grocery store in that Monopoly game and the odds of winning were greater than those odds.

[doc03]

22. A gun range should be pretty safe everyone

is packing heat?

[viva la]

28. This guy snuck up on the owners--

So even gun ranges aren't safe, I guess.

[link:https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/coweta-county/police-release-new-information-man-accused-shooting-3-people-death-grantville/4PLUV4CQAFEEXE4O7B3M2MJNUU/|

[LeftInTX]

23. Yes and No

[GusBob]

24. I might get flayed for posting this

But maybe the key words in your post are "towns and cities" ?

I mean, the rural county I live in has 15,000 folks, and yes alot of folks have guns too. A whole lot. But gun deaths have been and are rare. So to answer your question, I guess its a safe place.

But alot of them other things you mentioned, maybe other than churches, farms or ranches, there aint alot of either.

[viva la]

27. But this is America.

There's always a mass killing example.

[link:https://www.fox19.com/2019/09/16/angela-wagner-goes-court-monday-4/|Pikestown, OH.
Two feuding families.]
4 members of one of the families killed 8 members of the other (all over... a child custody dispute. Seriously, with most of us, we probably wouldn't feel like we deserve custody if we're going to kill the child's mother, grandparents, uncles, and cousins.).


And rural America along the interstates (esp. I-70!) is like serial murder alley. I remember at least 5 "college coeds" murdered along i-70 in the Midwest, and each seems to have been killed by yet another killer.

But I think I would feel safer in most rural areas. (I'm not a college coed, however.)

[hunter]

30. I've lived in some very rough places.

There are posters here on DU who wouldn't choose to live where I live now because it's "too dangerous" or something.

I don't ever choose to live in that kind of fear.

The majority of my neighbors are Hispanic. (Gasp, so is my wife!)

40% of the children in our schools don't speak English at home.

The rest of us are white like me, or Black, or Asian. All that's great about the U.S.A.... diversity.

I've always had much nicer neighbors in "bad" neighborhoods than I've ever had in "good" neighborhoods. I haven't lived in majority white neighborhoods for most of my adult life. (I still carry that white privilege, however, whether I want it or not.)

I grew up in one of the "safest" 99% affluent white cities in the U.S.A.. It sucked. There's no way in hell anyone could ever make me move back to a place like that. I wouldn't do it for a free house and a six figure salary. There's something about affluent white U.S.A. I find creepy. Maybe because I never fit in. From middle school to high school I was called "queerbait" and frequently beaten bloody. I quit high school at sixteen. Never went to a dance or football game, never cared about a prom.

In my parent's defense they were there for the work. As artists with day jobs and more children than they could comfortably support they couldn't be too picky.

Me and my siblings all fled as soon as we were able. So did my parents shortly after my dad retired.

I hate guns because I've experienced gun violence.

Gun fetishes are disgusting.

[Johnny2X2X]

35. Do people forget the 80s and 90s?

The violent crime rate in the US in the late 80s and early 90s was double what it is now. We've seen an uptick the last couple years, but it's still nothing approaching how bad it was here 30 years ago.