Oliver discussed how pernicious so-called Stand Your Ground laws are, since they seem to give a license to many people to shoot at the slightest provocation.
Meanwhile, Bee points to some hopeful grassroots groups that are trying to reduce the number of gun deaths and injuries, such as Moms Demand Action that seeks to combat the NRA at the local level and violence interrupters who try to identify potential dangers in their local communities before they occur and step in to mediate conflicts.
Americans hear about possible blood clotting from vaccines: freak the fuck out
Mass shootings: eh, its gun rights
Americans dont do risk management very well. At all, really.
@1, Marcus,
It’s broader than Americans. It’s a human thing. People don’t look at probabilities, they react to surprise.
Is it something new? It’s frightening even if it only affects 1 in 100,000,000.
Is it something familiar? Meh, not a concern, even if it affects 1 in 1,000.
Human beings are generally pretty bad at understanding probability when it gets to be 1 in 5 or lower. I have no source for that estimate, it’s only a rough guess based on my experience. In my experience, people feel that a 20% chance is very unlikely, while an 80% chance is pretty much a guarantee. It’s funny how it often something with a 20% chance actually happens, about one in every five times. And people are often surprised when something with an 80% chance of occurring fails as often as it does, that happens roughly one in five times.