You are finding specific statistical elements to support your point of view.
I can't believe I just read this.
I think
5 digit was implying that some cherry-picking was going on. Not that the linked facts weren't good ... but a legitimate question can be raised about whether or not those facts are even particularly relevant. Who cares if broad-scale "school violence" is mathematically "down"? One Columbine or Newtown has more societal reverberation than, for example, a thousand hallway stabbings. Just reckoning body counts alone doesn't really inform policy all that much, IMHO.
BFS touches on this in post #9023 except that he comes down in favor of, essentially, a purely mathematical reckoning of the severity of given acts of violence. He's right that "death by terrorism" is on par, statistically, with things like "death by meteorite". But is he right that pure casualty numbers should drive policy? That's an open question.
My opinion is that an event such as the Aurora theater shooting, in which 12 died and 58 were injured, is immensely more impactful on society (admittedly, not in a measurable way) than 70 disparate acts of random criminal violence on individuals. Accordingly, I think it's proper to throw greater resources at stopping future James Holmeses and Tamerlan Tsarnaevs than at stopping random dark-alley shootings, even though the latter results in more deaths & injuries. The reason? I believe that with terrrorist acts and mass-casualty violence, the damage done to society far exceeds the worth of the lives lost and bodies maimed.