Comments on: Norway, Finland Top List For Most Per Capita Fatalities In 2013 Rampage Shooting Index

By: Dean

Dean — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:16:39 +0000

What this ridiculous chart doesn’t show is that the Norway shooting was ONE incident in four years, while here in the US, we have a couple of shootings a day.

By: Fandango

Fandango — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:53:09 +0000

“Norway and Finland are statistical anomalies in this case because they each happen to have experienced one case of rampage shooting in the past four years. For a country with a small population, it only takes one incident of shooting to skew the average.”

Incorrect – Finland has experienced three incidents in the last four years. If you go back further, Finland experiences regular incidences of school shootings particularly. Norway could be correctly dismissed by your logic, however, the alternate extreme you propose – raw totals – is meaningless. Per capita measurement is the method by which two things of different sizes can be meaningfully compared.

By: justathinker

justathinker — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:30:04 +0000

Statistically, we should ban the World Cup.

By: Payne

Payne — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:46:30 +0000

A more “selective” use of data would be to just use the number of people killed and wounded without considering the overall population, or without considering the number of firearms in that country, or the percentage of the population that own/carry weapons.

By: G.

G. — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 13:51:19 +0000

There are several problems with this analysis, but the biggest problem is that you are comparing a country with a very large population (the U.S.) to countries with very small populations. Norway and Finland are statistical anomalies in this case because they each happen to have experienced one case of rampage shooting in the past four years. For a country with a small population, it only takes one incident of shooting to skew the average.

So while this analysis is mathematically correct, it is extremely selective in it’s use of data, and should not be used to draw any sweeping conclusions with respect to gun control.