Reality is often indeed stranger than fiction.
Reading one of the economics blogs that I follow every day (yep, most of us have to dangle our feet in the real world now and then) I came across an unusual statistic that our crack research team is now working to verify. Those of you who are firearm enthusiasts won’t be surprised if the following is in fact true…..
An interesting observation appeared in the Australian Shooter Magazine this week: If you consider that there has been an average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theater of operations during the past 22 months, and a total of 2112 deaths, that gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.
The firearm death rate in Washington, DC is 80.6 per 100,000 for the same period. That means you are about 25 percent more likely to be shot and killed in the US capital, which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the US, than you are in Iraq.
Conclusion: “The US should pull out of Washington.”
We report, you decide.
Tags: Culture, Books, Art
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While I can’t say I’m a fan of the argument behind the analogy, I will say this in all seriousness. There is a small but committed movement of DC residents who do want the US to pull out of Washington because of what they see as the colonial status of the city where they have no real home rule and no representation in Congress.
It was not uncommon to come across people who wanted to go much further than DC statehood but would talk about DC secession; it’s a fringe movement (and in DC, it’s a movement on the political left, but there is no such thing as a political right in DC).
Thought you might that amusing …
Keep up the good work
(U.S. out of Iraq and out of DC)
I guess you forgot to count the 13,954 documented civilian deaths from violence since November 2007.
To paraphrase your lede – Truth is far more tragic than an obnoxious statistic.
You should stick to fishing reports.
Or, another conclusion would be to arm everyone in DC, not just the bad guys that break the gun control laws.
One up for gun rights.
@Ura – maybe you should stick to hyperventilating and quoting ‘obnoxious statistics’ of your own on some other turf.
The ‘lede’ of the post is indeed true (nice use of the word on your part, though; I presume you were intending to piss on we unsophisticated, uneducated and illiterate fishermen).
Looking even superficially at the post, which clearly states the quote was taken from a financial blog and is not the opinion or research of the author, it is clearly intended as a poke at the nutcases in DC. Try to tune in a bit before you vomit up your ‘isolated factoids’ and offer advice to anyone. About anything.
Just for the record, I’m a far politically left leaning professor of education in Chicago AND a personal firearms enthusiast. I suspect the writers at the Australian Shooter Magazine are correct in their assertion…..
Ura – wow, there were than many civilians killed in DC since Nov 2007?????????
To the CW boys – great blog and im one of those who thinks you should write more about stuff that just fishing reports all the time
Just a quick note. I love your site, read it every day. But this piece got my attention. I am a law enforcement officer in Washington D.C. and I beg to differ with the facts.
Now, if you will, entertain my logic: Washington D.C has approximately 600,000 residences and on average between 140 and 200 murders in any given year. Now, that is way too much but not in the range of 80 per 100,000. Doing quick math I get about 23 to 33 per 100,000. Not good, but certainly less than 80.6.
Furthermore, 2112 deaths per 100,000 over 22 months (my math is not my strongest but here goes) is something on the order of 921 per 100,000. I don’t know where the Australians got their numbers but they may want to revise them. This, of course, speculates that every death here fore mentioned was the result of a firearm. We can speculate about IEDs and accidental deaths, but for arguments sake will go with the statistics the Australians gave us.
Give our men and women in the Armed Forces their due respect…Iraq is an extremely dangerous country, unlike anything in the United States. Washington D.C. is a fine city to live and work in. We have our problems but the men and women I work with are committed to keeping its citizens safe. It’s not an easy job.
Just thought you ought to know… Thanks for the great website, keep it up.
@Dave,
Thanks for your comments about the Australian data we quoted last week. We’ve heard from several fly fishing friends in the greater DC area about the article – almost all have expressed sentiments very similar to yours.
May I offer a couple of additional comments –
First, the Australian Shooter Magazine does appear to be well off the mark here. To prove that it sometimes is a really small world we live in today, I was chatting via email with a photographer in Sydney about a piece for Fish Can’t Read, and it appears his wife does some work for this magazine. This is of course second-hand, but it appears they’ve been inundated with feedback about this piece and are going to print a formal correction after looking at new data.
Somewhat weakly in their defense he opined that the mag was poking fun at the political shenanigans that have taken place for years in Washington. I must admit I agree somewhat with that angle – American politics do at times border on the insane, seemingly increasingly so of late.
Secondly, in no way was my intent to denigrate the service of our Armed Forces in Iraq or any other theatre of operation OR law enforcement officials serving their communities any where in our nation. Though I fear we’re a distinct minority in our local community, we’re vehement supporters of our men and women serving in the military.
I can assure you that our team greatly appreciates the work that you and other law enforcement folks do in DC and around the country, and admire your courage and dedication in performing the work that you day in and day out. If our posting the article was offensive to you in any way, please accept my formal and sincere apology.
Give us a call next time you’re out in the neighborhood, we’d love to buy you a beer and take you fishing.
Appreciate the nice comments about the blog.
Mark