I'm not a statistician, but I've tried to pick up a little. The school shootings in the US are committed by crazies. In any population one would expect a certain % of crazies. People will try to attribute crazy behavior to things which may be controlled but I don't buy that. Crazy is as crazy does.
To get a good sample requires MANY iterations. In a large population a few dozen in a decade vs none in a small population isn't statistically valid.
IT like saying lets flip a coin 50 times and if it lands on heads 40 times it will land on heads 4 times out of 5 in the next 50 flips. Wrong. Sample not large enough. Nor does it give any indication of when the proper ratio will appear (50/50). You have to keep flipping until the sample is large enough that a true pattern emerges.
Or likewise flip it 10 times and they all land on tails, well you see. Doesn't mean something caused it to happen, even if it hapens again 10 times in a row.
First, Australians and Americans are both human. I would imagine that the percentage of "crazy" is similar in both populations, but for some reason the Australian "crazies" don't shoot the place up. I wonder why? What is the difference? Hmmm...
Secondly, to suggest our 74 school shootings in just the past year and a half to Australia's ZERO is statiscally insignificant is just plain ridiculous. Zero is the only acceptable statistic and if we aren't doing everything we can to get closer to that number, we are failing the children in this country. We are not talking about flipping coins.
How and why is it possible for a 15 year old kid in Portland to have access to an AR-15, a 9mm and hundreds of rounds of ammo?
BTW, you know that "74" number is totally bogus, right?
It includes use of firearms in self-defense from attackers, suicides, drug deals gone bad in school parking lots after hours, and some incidents that can't be independently verified as ever happening at all. http://www.nationalreview.com/node/380108/print
Yes, there have been a few events where a gunman has simply walked into a school and opened fire. Those are undeniably tragic and have been well-publicized. I agree that zero should be the goal. But suggesting that there have been 74 recent incidents of what the general public considers "school shootings" is wildly misleading. While misleading people may be an effective tactic to advance a cause, but its not a constructive way to solve an actual problem. (To be clear, I'm pointing a finger at the people who put out the bogus number, not anyone who innocently makes reference to it.)
To say those figures are bogus or insignificant is just plain ignorant and stupid, sorry guys but thats just total bullsh1t, look at it how you want, you"ve totally missed the point, we have still had none in that period and none i can even remember at all, ever. The schools are just one example and a disgusting statistic at that, what other stats would you like, you'll still find NO gun stats that come close to ours no matter how you like to look at it and there are still plenty of guns here.... 1 shooting in a school is far too many, 74 should be a national disgrace, regardless of how they occurred.... referring to me as being "innocent" to whats going on is annoying and patronizing, the number is insignificant, the point was it should be a national disgrace and something should be being done about it, how can the worlds largest economy and "protectors" of the free world be so damn violent, its completely hypocritical..
In a large population a few dozen in a decade vs none in a small population isn't statistically valid.
Ron, thats pretty naive mate, i don't know anyone that would believe that statement for one minute, its laughable, we aren't talking about war , these are SCHOOLS.....unbelievable......
And it wasn't a decade, it was in around a year and a half which makes it all the more worse.
