Irrational Fears

Photo credit: Unknown

Great comparison, but it does not explain the discrepancy. Look to Hollywood for that and their “Jaws” like flicks. You can make the same comparison of irrational fear in regards to the number of children kill by guns as compared to other types of killings. I will just pick backyard swimming pools to compare, but the same comparison would work if I chose auto deaths as well.

Recent headline, “Up to 100 children a year die from accidental shootings, research shows” in that same year, roughly 5,000 children 14 and under go to the hospital because of accidental drowning-related incidents each year; 15% (750) die and about 20% (1,000) suffer from permanent neurological disability. The question is why do we fear so greatly about guns killing our children and so little about their swimming in our backyard? The answer? The MSM harps the gun danger, but never mentions the swimming deaths. That, my friends, is an example of propaganda working.

Now let us compare another irrational fear, that of being killed by a terrorist, statistics about lightning still show that they kill about 55 people a year, about 3 to 10 children and teens die from lightning strikes each year.

Sept. 11, 2001 in New York City, Arlington, Va., and Shanksville, Pa.: hijackers crashed 2 commercial jets into twin towers of World Trade Center; 2 more hijacked jets were crashed into the Pentagon and a field in rural Pa. Total dead and missing numbered 2,992. November 5, 2009, a mass murder took place at Fort Hood Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, fatally shot 13 people and injured more than 30 others. April 15 2013 three people are killed in Boston.

Thus, in the last 14 years: Terrorist- 3,008. Lightning- 770. An almost 3 times greater risk of being killed by a terrorist than by lightning. 

However, if we only count the past 13 years the ratio changes to Terrorist-16. Lightning-715. Thus the odd are about 45 time more likely you will be killed by lightning than by a terrorist.