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Probability 101: Ending Worldwide Terrorism vs. Ending Nationwide Gun Violence

One reason NRA die-hards drive me nuts is the fact they've yet to make a certifiably logical argument against strengthening gun laws. Instead of looking at scientific studies, worldwide legal trends (and their impacts), and/or logic/common sense, they often resort to conspiracy theories and especially bumper-sticker slogans, such as: "Guns don't kill people; people kill people;" "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun;" and "Criminals will always find a way to be criminals." Yes, all of these talking points are ridiculous on different levels, but ironically enough, these same individuals tend to be all for the worldwide war on terror and the belief that, by attacking countries which aren't our biggest fans and which harbor terrorists, we'll find a way to end terror. So where's the consistency? At least with gun reform advocates, we don't tend to look the other way on terrorism and think we should do nothing about it. Staunch gun rights supporters, however, don't seem to possess that same level of consistency, as when it comes to terrorism, they don't roll out a steady stream of bumper-sticker slogans, such as: "Bombs don't kill people; people kill people;" "The only way to stop a bad guy with a bomb is a good guy with a bomb;" or "Terrorists will always find a way to be terrorists." No, their tendency is to say, "Bomb them all!" Yet, while we shouldn't turn a blind eye to terror occurring in other nations, the laws of probability state it's much more likely for us to condense gun violence in our own country than it is to end terrorism across the globe.

Let's look at the numbers. The world population is at approximately 7.6 billion (7,600,000,000). The U.S. population is at approximately 325.7 million (325,700,000). In other words, the U.S contains just 4.3% of the world's population. To put it another way, the world's population is over 23 times that of the United States. Also, since 2015, Europeans have been twice as likely as United States citizens of becoming terror victims. Having said that, you're 175 times more likely to be a victim of gun violence in the U.S. than of terror in Europe. So why does it make more sense for Republican lawmakers to try and end world terror than it is to try and decrease American gun violence? Simple, it doesn't. While we shouldn't disregard terroristic acts worldwide, we'd be foolish to disregard acts of gun violence in our own country, especially since they're much more prevalent, as well as controllable (condensable at least). While angry, violent individuals may always be that way and there's no such thing as a perfect law, that gives us no excuse to sit idly by as thousands of families become one fewer every year due to gun violence in this country.

https://towardsdatascience.com/fear-factor-guns-vs-terrorism-e6b92ebb576d

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