Americans worry more about gun violence than losing their jobs

[onehandle]

Source: Washington Post

The Kaiser Family Foundation asked adults how much they worry about a certain situations, ranging from their ability to afford health care to the possibility of being a victim of a terrorist attack.

It found, in a new poll out Wednesday, that Americans worry more about being a victim of gun violence than they do about losing a job or being unable to pay their mortgage.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/02/27/americans-worry-more-about-gun-violence-than-losing-their-jobs

---

More evidence that the tipping point has been reached, gun nuts.

[patrice]

1. I am not comfortable in movie theaters & it IS difficult to put out of my mind. nt

[Bay Boy]

3. A quick quiz

How many movie theaters are there in the USA?

Name all those that you have heard of gun murders at.
(did you name more than one?)

[derby378]

7. I went to see THE DARK KNIGHT RISES in a theater and thought nothing about it

I will not live in fear. I'll go wherever I damn well please.

[frylock]

37. i love the gun nuts telling us how THEY WILL NOT LIVE IN FEAR!!1

you're whole life is based on fear, dude.

[derby378]

41. And of course, you're an expert on what MY personal life is, right?

One more thing - I went to the theater unarmed. Boo.

[frylock]

42. you didn't have to use your AK?

damn it was a good day.

[LeftInTX]

5. I'm the same way too

[Bay Boy]

26. Seems to be a common response

to uncommon occurrences. A plane crashes "I'll never fly" A cruise ship has a problem "I'll never go on a cruise". etc.

[Smilo]

36. I'm not comfortable in movie theaters either

but it has nothing to do with the thought of violence - I hate paying the ticket prices only to have my viewing experience ruined by some loud mouths talking all the way through.

You can't let fear rule your life - if you give into fear then those that have carried out any kind of attack - have won.

If you are having difficulty putting violence out of your mind you may need to go talk to someone professionally.

[Bay Boy]

2. They worry about gun violence and yet...

...I hear so many members here deriding people who choose to carry concealed with the words "In all my years I've never had a need for a concealed gun, you are just paranoid if you carry".

[Kingofalldems]

4. Links please

'so many members' --- Callout, now please prove it.

[Bay Boy]

17. I'm too lazy for that...

...but if you have read the gun forum you've seen it yourself.

[roxy1234]

44. Any chance

You can direct me to the gun forum(with link? I have been hearing about it for years now but I have never been able to locate it.

Thanks

[Bay Boy]

45. Serious!?!

See that tab on the top that says "Forums & Groups"? click that

(or click this)http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1172

[roxy1234]

47. Ah never thought of looking there

I have gone through all the topics and sub topics on the left side hoping to find the infamous gundeon there but got no where until now. Anyway thanks, I have a lot to catch up on

[patrice]

8. For some of us, it is simply a matter of freedom of association. Why would others carry guns unless

they think there's a possibility that they will need them? Are they a fashion accessory? A status symbol? A political statement?

No if it weren't for what guns do, no one would be carrying them for these other possible reasons either. So, I can assume that if I am in the presence of people who are carrying guns, they are doing so because there is some threat. My rights to freedom of association allow me to CHOOSE those with whom I associate. If I choose not to associate with persons who are under so much threat that they are carrying guns in my presence, that is my rightful choice. If you interfere with my right to this kind of self-determination by preventing the exercise of my right by hiding some essentially determinative factor, e.g. the possibility of violence proven by the necessity of weapons, then you are claiming a PRIVILEGE over my rights which you did not seek from me in any way shape or form, because the whole point of CC is to be secret, nor did you offer me compensation for whatever risk I might have chosen if you had allowed me to decide for myself.

CC claims a secret privilege that it does not grant to others, self-determination, and it claims that privilege by means of threat of the most ultimate violence there is. That pretty much fits my definition of fascism.

[Bay Boy]

16. Or:

Why would others (wear seatbelts/have a fire extingquisher)unless
they think there's a possibility that they will need them? Are they a fashion accessory? A status symbol? A political statement?

[patrice]

19. You just proved my point: You think GUNS are the same as FIRE EXTINGUISHERS so YOU ARE DANGEROUS.

[Bay Boy]

22. Thank you for letting me know that...

...I actually thought I was a safe person with the ability to tell the difference between disimilar objects. But I stand corrected.

[patrice]

23. You're the one who said they should be regarded as enough alike that there is no need to treat them

differently.

[patrice]

24. BTW, do you conceal your seat-belt, your fire-extinguisher? Why not? nt

[patrice]

20. If guns were the same as seat-belts why are there any guns at all, why don't you just carry a

seat-belt?

Please read up on a flaw in logic called "false equivalence".

[patrice]

21. Echoing my questions back to me only shows you don't have any original questions of your own AND

you either can't or, more interesting and tellingly, DON'T WANT TO ANSWER my questions to you.

[frylock]

38. are you fucking shitting me?!

wearing a seatbelt is mandated by law. you've been exposed to too much lead.

[Bay Boy]

39. LOL Carrying concealed

( I typed this wrong)
is mandated in the law

[frylock]

40. are you grinding up bullets and snorting the lead?

CCW is a CHOICE. you need to apply for CCW. wearing a seatbelt is also a choice, but unlike carrying concealed, most NORMAL people NEED transportation to get to work. they work so they can DRIVE to the grocery store, purchasing food necessary to sustain LIFE. not going to continue this conversation with your obtuse bullshit. go troll someone else.

[upaloopa]

12. It's not the same thing. People are worried they will

be involved in an act of gun violence because of the latest shootings in the news. They are not afraid someone will attack them on the street.

[patrice]

18. Hello? Hello? WHAT ARE GUNS USED FOR? Q. Why are people carrying them everywhere? A. Danger.

[Bay Boy]

25. I carry for the potential of danger

much like I wear my seat belt for the potential of a crash or have a fire extinguisher at my house for the potential of a fire. I've never made use of any of the three so far in my 60 years of life.

[patrice]

27. But there are differences in the functions of those three objects in response to danger. It isn't

about whether you have used them or not, but about what the objects do if you did use them and what essential differences there in what they do. It's much harder to kill someone with what comes out of a fire-extinguisher, or with a seat-belt, than it is with a gun.

Because of that specific difference, IN PUBLIC PLACES, I have legitimate concerns about the presence of guns that I am unaware of. Guns are for certain events that fire-extinguishers are not. Go head and carry a fire extinguisher around with you, if you feel you need one; I bet you won't also feel like you have to HIDE the fire-extinguisher in a public place. People might think it odd, but their reaction to it's FUNCTION wouldn't necessarily be such that hiding it would become part of its function. Guns aren't like that and yet, because of what they do, I do have a particular reaction to them, IN PUBLIC PLACES, that is part of my rights to self-determination, especially in regards to what affects my safety and that of my loved ones in those same public places - WITHOUT ANY OF OUR knowledge or opportunity to decide whatever we can about any given public situation.

[slackmaster]

29. You're not going to get your way on this, patrice. There will always be a possibility that somone...

...in your vicinity will be carrying a concealed firearm, either legally or not. The ones who are carrying illegally merit more concern than the ones doing so legally.

Because you can't do anything about it, I suggest that you teach yourself to accept it and not worry about it. There are a lot of things in life that pose greater risks to your health and safety than do people who are licensed to carry weapons.

[patrice]

32. Say that sort of thing to the kid who was shot outside of some club on the east side of my city

last night, NOT an unusual occurrence here at all, in fact, practically normal.

And I have FRIENDS who live over near there too, someone in particular who REALLY didn't get MOST of the breaks, and probably never will, that middle-class concealed carriers have already receive and will continue to receive. How much time does my beloved friend have?, compared to all of these other people who regard what could happen to her and others as just another ir-relevant statistical probability?



God! I'm sorry, sometimes I think I hate this country.

[slackmaster]

33. I'll take a wild guess that the kid wasn't shot by someone who was carrying a gun legally

[patrice]

34. You may know more about those probabilities, but PLEASE consider that not much of that matters

to the boy and his family and others in those situations and yet the whole culture of this issue, including its LEGAL dimensions, makes their situation increasingly more dangerous . . .

but then I imagine you know that, because you are paying attention, so thanks for what you do, slackmaster.

[derby378]

6. Some "tipping point"

I notice that data point has been greatly eclipsed by the next topic: "Not being able to afford the health care services you think you need." This after Obamacare was signed into law and upheld by the Supreme Court. Are we supposed to take on Obamacare next, by your logic?

[jtuck004]

9. Americans are not very good at math, and they stink at probabilities, so this isn't

all that surprising.

Over 5 million homes foreclosed since the criminal enterprise of the banks collapsed, and over 50,000 families a month still being yanked out of their homes. Millions of good paying jobs are now so much smoke, continuing to be replaced with shit jobs by the millions, where they are replaced at all.

Shootings don't even come close to that. On the other hand, viewing multiple news reports about any shooting is far more likely than a story about how your corporation is screwing you, or about families being made homeless by criminals who are being funded by our tax dollars.

Thanks for posting that. It does a good job of showing the effectiveness of propaganda and television "news" at distracting people from the real dangers in their lives.

[slackmaster]

11. It's not just Americans. Humans in general are not very good at understanding probability.

[jtuck004]

13. Tru dat. Not entirely bad, has to do with stuff deep in our brain that protects us from

deadly snakes and a few other ancient hazards. But because many people don't realize this, and aren't taught, (tougher to control a populace that thinks critically, eh?) it exposes people to a lot of hazards that are far more common and deadly.

[slackmaster]

14. One of my friends from undergraduate days now has a PhD in Epidemiology. He has a very different...

...view of the world than most people as a result.

He often says things that seem counter-intuitive but can be easily shown to be true. For example "If you make it to age 85, you're pretty much a shoo-in to make it to 100." That's because by 85 you have surpassed the ages at which heart disease, common cancers, diabetes, and other big killers take people out.

[jtuck004]

15. That's interesting.

I had read about propaganda and lies and their effectiveness, but when I got into dog rescue many years ago I ran headlong into the hysteria I encountered about dog bites, so-called pit bulls, etc. But when I started looking at the stats I realized that it was mostly driven by news, not facts, and "true believers" who want to push their own agenda of hate, more like Rush Limbaugh. A book that addresses some of that is "Dogs Bite: But Balloons and Slippers Are More Dangerous" by Janis Bradley, lists the CDC stats on choking, tripping, drownings - far more actual injuries and death from those than any dog or group of dogs has ever presented.

But, as the article above shows, people often ignore data, letting their actions be guided by over-hyped or salacious news, even to their own peril or detriment.

As people we are odd that way.

[Posteritatis]

35. I need to find my copy of Dan Gardner's "Risk" again now. (nt)

[slackmaster]

10. It's clearly a result of misleading vividness in media coverage of selected violent crimes

If people worried about things in proportion to the actual risk they posed, they would worry a lot more about motor vehicle accidents, poisoning, and slip/fall injuries than they do about crime.

People are FAR more likely to die of cancer than to be murdered; and terrorist attacks are so rare that worrying about them at all makes no sense.

[robinlynne]

28. just one thing. unemployed people left out of the equation. not counted.

[slackmaster]

30. It wouldn't make sense to include unemployed people in the survey...

...because they have no reason to fear losing their jobs.

[robinlynne]

43. actually you just dont know how terrifying it is. much higher on my fear scale.

(no I dont have a job.) That is my point. when you are not earning a living, you pretty much live in fear.

[slackmaster]

46. Sorry if that seemed insensitive, robinlynne. I have been laid off numerous times, and dead broke

...three times in my life: The day I was born, the day I was awarded my BA degree, and the day my divorce was final. The last was at age 40, and I knew I had just been through a period of unemployment. I was 40 and terrified of losing the home that I managed to keep in the divorce.

Now I'm 55 and have recovered from that, but the prospect of every being able to retire on what I've managed to save seems daunting.

[graham4anything]

31. Of course. If one is shot dead, losing their job is the last thing on their mind

[spin]

48. Do you realize that many "gun nuts" worry about being the victim of gun violence ...

and consequently buy firearms for self defense?

It would be my guess you never considered this as you finished your post by saying ...

"More evidence that the tipping point has been reached, gun nuts."