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Old October 13, 2005, 08:18 PM   #14
gddyup
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Join Date: July 22, 2005
Location: Derry, NH
Posts: 219
Quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim
"... statistics released by the National Safety Council on the chances of being ACCIDENTLY killed in any given manner.

...ACCIDENTAL GUNSHOT 1 in 4888"
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The article is absurd on its face if that's really the way the numbers are presented. More likely they meant to say that 1 in every 4888 accidental deaths is from a gunshot. That is *much* different than saying any one individual's chances of dying from accidental gunshot are 1/4888. One cannot, in fact, assess an individual's risk this way. For example, what if (hypothetically) an individual never ever went close enough to a firearm to be shot by it. His chances of dying from accidental gunshot would be exactly zero.

Tim



Tim, +1

How did you manage to say what I wanted to say, but so succinctly?!

-blackmind
What if said person just happened to live next to someone who owned quite a few guns, just happened to be cleaning one one day, had an AD that went through the neighbors wall, and killed said person?

Just something off the wall that *may* happen and probably has. I hate statistics!
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