• sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 days ago

    Its only misleading if you are not capable of realizing a person can shoot themselves or another person.

    Calling it simply a firearm means that a firearm caused the death.

    Thats it.

    If you automatically read context into that, context that is not there, that’s either a you problem or a literacy problem.


    Also:

    https://www.thetrace.org/2025/07/gun-homicide-suicide-data-link-study/

    Over the course of five decades, the data showed that the strongest association between an increase in homicide rates and elevated suicide risk occurred in rural communities and among white populations. A one-point increase in the overall homicide rate correlated to a 3.6 percent increase in the suicide rate the following year, according to the study. The correlation was even more stark between firearm-related deaths: For every one-point rise in the firearm homicide rate, there was a 5.7 percent increase in firearm suicides.

    tl:dr, firearm homicide and suicide rates are well corellated with a time lag.

    We can say that a big problem is simply too much access to too many guns and say that with data as well.

    “These results would suggest violence prevention is suicide prevention, and that we can reduce suicides by reducing violence in local communities.”

    “We know that suicide and homicide in some ways have a lot of the same drivers,” said Dr. Emmy Betz, an emergency physician and public health scholar at the University of Colorado who specializes in firearm suicide prevention. “Poverty, lack of access to reliable housing or food, relationship stressors, and domestic violence can all increase the risk of suicide or homicide.”

    The… so obvious it hopefully doesn’t have to be stated… but apparently it actually does… part, being:

    It is significantly easier to kill either yourself or another person with a firearm, than without one.

    Its even easier than via using a car, in the US.

    Plenty of people kill themselves and others in car accidents or otherwise using/involving a car… but the above graph is as agnostic to intent, to victim/perpetrator with cars as it is with guns, but for some reason, you don’t bring that up, that doesn’t need to be specifically clarified.

    • krashmo@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      If people assumed that deaths from car crashes were usually intentionally inflicted on others, as they do with firearms, then yes, I would expect you to clarify that most car crashes are accidents when citing statistics about them that are not specific enough to convey that information on their own. If you think clarity in these matters is unimportant then you are in no position to be lecturing me about the proper use of statistics. Thanks for being a dick though, that’s super conducive to meaningful discussion.

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        2 days ago

        You literally just could have said:

        For clarity, in this graph, ‘Firearm’ means any death caused by a firearm.

        Instead of asserting disingenuousness on the part of the graph or article with more context it was pulled from, which I provided a link to.

        That would be how to discuss this constructively, vs antagonistically.

        Perhaps you have… evidence for your naked assertion related to the prevelance of assumptions/interpretations around specific terminology/vocabulary, in certain contexts?

        As a counter to your personal interpretation… beyond having a career as a data analyst, I’ve also had a bit of and off an on hobby of shooting, at gun ranges.

        I can very much tell you that the gun immersed culture has… very different (and often much more precise) understandings of all terminology that is any way related to firearms, than people who have essentially zero experience or familiarity or proper training with firearms.

        And, in the US… quite a lot of people are far more dedicated to firearms as a hobby or even lifestyle than in… probably anywhere else in the world, per capita.

        We do have more privately owned guns than people here, I can’t say I’m aware of any other country with that kind of a statistic… maybe Afghanistan? Syria?

        Switzerland maybe? But… their gun laws work in a way that I really think in an ideal world, the US could somehow move toward, much more restrictve than the US, but much less restrictive than many other countries.

        • krashmo@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          I told you that the statistic was presented in a misleading manner and clarified the correct context which is exactly what you’re now suggesting I should have done. If you inferred anything else from my original comment then that’s on you.