OT: Americans love their guns

[Dave Brueck]

On Thursday 28 August 2003 04:14 pm, Peter Hansen wrote:
> Dave Brueck wrote:
> > On Thursday 28 August 2003 12:40 pm, Lulu of the Lotus-Eaters wrote:
> > > |The odds of getting killed that way are roughly the same as the odds
> > > |that you'll die from aspirin or similar drugs
> > >
> > > No... this one is just way off.  According to above URL form:
> > >
> > >   2000, United States
> > >   Adverse effects - Drugs Deaths and Rates per 100,000
> > >   All Races, Both Sexes, All Ages
> > >   ICD-10 Codes: Y40-Y59,Y88.0
> > >
> > >   Number of Deaths  Population  Crude Rate  Age-Adjusted Rate**
> > >       255           275,264,999     0.09    0.09
> >
> > Aren't statistics fun? :)
> >
> > Think about it: even intuitively, 255 is *way* too low for a population
> > of 275 million (that's essentially zero - in a population that size 255
> > people probably die in sneezing-releated incidents every year) - I don't
> > think that statistic represents what you think it represents.
>
> Dave, I think you missed the "rates per 100,000" part, above.  That
> means roughly 700,000 deaths for the population given, not 255.

That's what I thought too initially, but the actual web page itself suggests 
otherwise. OTOH, if it *is* 255 per 100k, then that just makes my previous 
comment *more* true, and I don't think Lulu was attempting to do that! ;-)

-Dave