[rs999gti]

> A prime example is the American public's irrational fear of terrorism, which translates to pouring unfathomable amounts of tax dollars into the unending "war on terror". Meanwhile heart disease/cancer silently kills 1.1 million Americans every year.

The same thing could be said for the gun control narrative being pushed by the media and politicians. If gun deaths are classified as homicides and using CDC numbers, they account for less than 1% of deaths.

However, looking at the same data on the site for the Guardian and NYT, it looks like the wild west out there and homicides are the leading cause of death next to cancer.

[TangoTrotFox]

I would elaborate on that as well. The main focus of the media is on "assault style weapons" which translates to semi-automatic rifles. Of that < 1% of deaths, rifles (of any sort) are the weapon type in less than 3%. Literally nearly all gun deaths are caused by pistols, yet the media obsesses on rifles. Even if we filter to mass shootings, the primary weapon is most often, again, a pistol. [1]

How many people are aware of these data? I think that ignorance is going to be primarily the media's fault.

[1] - https://news.vice.com/article/glock-pistol-omar-mateen-orlan...

[losteric]

yeah... focusing on "assault weapons" is just divisive clickbait and legislative bikeshedding. Regulations should keep guns out of crazy and criminal hands, period.

[losteric]

I agree that the media is hyperbolizing gun violence, however that's a false equivalency.

The "war on terror" is costly and only creates more terrorism... stoking public fear feeds back into the problem. Legislation could significantly reduce firearm abuse with negligible cost and no feedback loops.

[pitaj]

What legislation? I really wish that whenever people talk about "reasonable gun laws" they would specify what they are referring to.