"For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable

Question

in america" -- George W Bush

lol
agree / disagree?

i mean, come on, how can we have THREE non fatal shootings for every fatal one?? that's unacceptable in america. it needs to be something like one or two. lol

Answer 1

those others were too busy putting food on their families to shoot straight.

Answer 2

He's talking about the high numbers of people getting shot in the US.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/05/20010514-1.html

Read the speech in context, please.

Here are the surrounding paragraphs in case you're too busy to read the whole speech:

"During the last several years, violent crime in America has been decreasing. And all Americans are grateful. Between 1989 and 1999, the violent crime rate dropped 20 percent. And that's a huge accomplishment. It really is. But, unfortunately, American society is still far too violent. The violent crime rate in the United States remains among the highest in the industrialized world.

Nationally, there were 12,658 murders in 1999, two-thirds of which were shooting deaths. And for every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And, folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going to do something about it.

Like most major urban centers -- cities -- in America, Philadelphia suffered from a stunning rise in violent crime. However, Philadelphia, as the Mayor mentioned, has made great progress. For example, in 1990, there were 500 murders; last year there were 319. And the Mayor deserves a lot of credit; so does the Police Commissioner and the policemen and women of Philadelphia. And for that, we're incredibly grateful. And we're grateful for programs such as Operation Sunrise and Safe and Sound and Youth Violence Reduction Project, which, Mr. Mayor, is making your city more safe and more secure for all of the citizens."


BTW this is from a 2001 speech.

I get a thumbs down for giving context? Pathetic.

Answer 3

Two ways to interpret that....

First, every shooting should be fatal -- we shouldn't have people out there who don't know how to shoot well enough that they only injure -- we need to get the fatal shootings up to 100%

Second -- that people are too good a shots -- or that bullets cause too much damage -- because the percentage of fatal shooting should be much lower than 25%.

Since he's only talking about the ratio of 3-to-1..... one can only assume he wants the ratio to be different. Otherwise, he'd be talking about how we have WAY TOO MANY gun-related deaths and violent crimes, and that's just not acceptable.

Answer 4

nice. The stat that isnt tracked that should be for all these gun haters out there, is the overwhelming amount of crime stopped by poeple by just brandishing a weapon. I personally heard of a lot of incidents where you just show your weapon when an altercation may start, and it ends with people walking away with no incident. I think that if people dont have the right to own guns in america, the criminals are the only ones that will have them, and we are screwed. If its illegal = crime/criminals will do/own them

Answer 5

This makes no sense. Does he want us to "even out" that ratio or something? Now, I know Bush has said some stupid things before, but to be fair, I'd like to know the context by which he made this comment.

Answer 6

Of course, it's unacceptable.
It's unacceptable about all the people killed by knives.
It's unacceptable that most Democrats Hate America.
Lots of things are unacceptable.

Answer 7

more target practice is needed

Answer 8

And?