g5000
Diamond Member
- Nov 26, 2011
- 127,192
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About once a week, someone somewhere on our planet gets attacked by a shark. Of those, maybe one attack a year is fatal.
You never hear about these attacks until there is a particularly bad attack, such as a 9 year old surfer losing an arm.
After a sensational shark attack, every shark attack for weeks afterward makes the news, giving the impression that sharks have suddenly gone crazy when the reality is that reporting of the attacks is on the rise. Because of the elevated attention toward shark attacks, people then become irrationally afraid of being attacked and killed by a shark.
This phenomenon is not unique to shark attacks, but I like to call the residual sensationalism which follows some dramatic event "shark attack stories". A celebrity runs into a tree while skiing and dies, ski accidents become the stories du juor for weeks afterward.
Just so with the AR-15. After it was reported that Adam Lanza had used an AR-15 at Sandy Hook, and that James Holmes had used an AR-15 in the Colorado Springs shooting, the AR-15 became a shark attack story. For months afterward, any time anywhere an AR-15 was used in a crime, it was sure to make the news, and the reporters made sure to mention an AR-15 was used.
As a result, the AR-15 has gained an irrational prominence in the communal mind.
So one does have to wonder if it is just a coincidence that a type of ammo that is specifically used in the AR-15 is being targeted for a ban. One does have to wonder if a ban that clearly would have virtually no impact on crime or deaths is an irrational reaction to shark attack stories.
You never hear about these attacks until there is a particularly bad attack, such as a 9 year old surfer losing an arm.
After a sensational shark attack, every shark attack for weeks afterward makes the news, giving the impression that sharks have suddenly gone crazy when the reality is that reporting of the attacks is on the rise. Because of the elevated attention toward shark attacks, people then become irrationally afraid of being attacked and killed by a shark.
This phenomenon is not unique to shark attacks, but I like to call the residual sensationalism which follows some dramatic event "shark attack stories". A celebrity runs into a tree while skiing and dies, ski accidents become the stories du juor for weeks afterward.
Just so with the AR-15. After it was reported that Adam Lanza had used an AR-15 at Sandy Hook, and that James Holmes had used an AR-15 in the Colorado Springs shooting, the AR-15 became a shark attack story. For months afterward, any time anywhere an AR-15 was used in a crime, it was sure to make the news, and the reporters made sure to mention an AR-15 was used.
As a result, the AR-15 has gained an irrational prominence in the communal mind.
So one does have to wonder if it is just a coincidence that a type of ammo that is specifically used in the AR-15 is being targeted for a ban. One does have to wonder if a ban that clearly would have virtually no impact on crime or deaths is an irrational reaction to shark attack stories.
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