University of Oklahoma Shooting reported on Campus - Polidicks

[QUOTE=catbarf;43633205]That the media disproportionately focusing on specific types of crime makes people more nervous about them, even if they're statistically less common. Like how people are afraid of flying because of widely-publicized plane crashes that get plastered all over the media, ignoring that they're far more likely to die in a car crash driving to the airport. A kid is more likely to drown in a backyard pool than be injured or killed in a school shooting. That's not to say that school shootings aren't important and should be ignored, but the fact that the media goes nuts over them for the ratings and ignores much more mundane pool deaths isn't really indicative of their respective threat to the safety of the people.[/QUOTE] That's because you have more control over your car than you do the plane you're in. If you die driving your car, there's a good chance you're somehow at fault or there was something you could've done to save yourself. If your plane stalls mid-air and freefalls down to earth then it probably wasn't your fault. I'm not talking statically necessarily, but that's just how people rationalize things. You are seen partially at fault when you die driving your car. Same thing with school shootings vs cancer deaths, or anything like that. If you smoke your whole life, then you are (at least) partially to blame.

[QUOTE=MaddaCheeb;43631850]I really wonder what's going through people's heads when they have the idea to go shoot up a school full of innocent people. [editline]22nd January 2014[/editline] fuckin' automerge[/QUOTE]A contorted view of the world where everyone else is falsely perceived to intentionally be mean to one.

[QUOTE=NoDachi;43631927]This is the 6th. January 9, 2014 January 13, 2014 January 14, 2014 January 17, 2014 January 21, 2014 and now today[/QUOTE] Holy fuck.

Ponder this. Are school shootings happening more often or are we just more aware of them?

[QUOTE=areolop;43633825]Ponder this. Are school shootings happening more often or are we just more aware of them?[/QUOTE] can't you check that yourself?

[QUOTE=areolop;43633825]Ponder this. Are school shootings happening more often or are we just more aware of them?[/QUOTE] If this incident was a shooting, then you'd as many or more school shootings this far into Janurary 2014 alone than any specific year before 2006.

[QUOTE=NoDachi;43632893]What are you getting at with the second half of this post?[/QUOTE] The fact that you are hundreds of times more likely to get shot walking down the street than in a school. [editline]22nd January 2014[/editline] Which, mind you, is bad, but is RARELY ever reported Unless someone tries to pull a trayvon.

[QUOTE=NoDachi;43633230]I'll lament the day when a bunch of kids getting murdered at a place of learning isn't newsworthy.[/QUOTE] That's a hell of a straw man. Nobody has said that an [i]actual[/i] shooting isn't newsworthy, but when the media goes nuts over an issue and gives one particular crime more airtime than others it's a self-perpetuating cycle that may not accurately reflect the actual threat to society. Nobody denies that 9/11 was a tragedy and deserved news coverage, but by your reasoning terrorism on American soil continues to be a very real and serious threat because of mistaken bomb scares, like [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Boston_bomb_scare]this one[/url]. And that's just not true; in the days since 9/11 more Americans have been killed by hitting deer with cars than by terrorism, but people continue to perceive terrorism as a serious threat to the country and report these false positives because of widely publicized scares combined with events like the Boston marathon bombing. The fact that people are more likely to react to something suspicious by assuming it's a bomb doesn't mean people are at high risk of being killed by terrorists, it's reflective of public fears fueled by media coverage of tragic but statistically rare events. Twenty years ago, a guy shooting someone else on the edge of school property would be another murder like all the others every day that barely make local news. Nowadays, it's considered a school shooting and it goes nationwide. And if a car backfired near a school in 1994, I really don't think it would result in a campus lockdown over an alleged gunman. Nobody says that school shootings aren't a problem, but you can't deny that the media has a [i]massive[/i] effect on public perception of danger. People think homicide is on the rise- it isn't, it's been dropping. People think gun ownership is on the rise- also dropping. People think mass shootings are more a problem than ever before- [url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2012/12/MassShootings.jpg]not according to the FBI[/url]. And when the media leads people to think that a particular crime is common, you're more likely to see false positives, and people shoehorning other crimes into the category (just look at how much gets labeled 'terrorism' today). The relation between perceived threat and actual threat is not always accurate. People reacting more strongly does not necessarily mean there is a greater threat, it means there is a greater [i]perception[/i] of threat. Thanks to the falling homicide rate, a college student is less likely to be murdered today than at any other point in the last twenty years, but you wouldn't think that from just watching the news.

It's weird, American school shootings between 2000 and 2010 are less then school shootings from 2010 on wards. There's got to be a reason for that.

The US is so fucked up compared to other first world countries.

[QUOTE=No_Excuses;43634496]The US is so fucked up compared to other first world countries.[/QUOTE] What is this based on.

probably homicide rates as a guess

Watch as this still goes on a list of school shootings.

[QUOTE=katbug;43634607]What is this based on.[/QUOTE] Well there's the obvious like gang and drug problems, privatized uni and health care, corrupt governments and surveillance agencies, public education system, unemployment problems, massively unreasonable military spending, outsourced manufacturing, auto industry, national debt crisis, wealth distribution, TSA, Immigration problems, obesity, urban decay of many cities, the Senate, imperial system... Yeah lots of 1st world countries have these problems but the Us is really leading the way with most of them.

talkin' shit like we wouldn't find out

[QUOTE=katbug;43634154]The fact that you are hundreds of times more likely to get shot walking down the street than in a school. [editline]22nd January 2014[/editline] Which, mind you, is bad, but is RARELY ever reported Unless someone tries to pull a trayvon.[/QUOTE] They're reported on all the time, they just don't tend to make it into national circuits unless it's a high profile case. Nearly every morning there are reports of local "mundane" murders where I live, but that's no great surprise, because East St Louis has one of the highest per capita murder rates in the country. The reason school shootings are reported on more widely is [I]because[/I] they're uncommon.