
Is Barack Obama correct that mass killings don't happen in other countries? - jessaustin
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/22/barack-obama/barack-obama-correct-mass-killings-dont-happen-oth/
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IanDrake
I wish they would stop comparing gun violence deaths and just use deaths from
violence.

I'm pretty sure I'd rather be shot to death than hacked to death by a machete
anyway. The implement (if there is any) doesn't matter as much as the result.

~~~
lingua_franca
yeah right but you could at least try to escape from being hacked by a
machete...

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hga
The stark recent example of this was the Rwanda genocide, and there was little
or no escape from the crowds wielding machetes.

Review videos about the Tueller Drill
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tueller_Drill](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tueller_Drill))
and you may become less confident about your ability to try to escape an edged
weapon.

All this mostly depends on how timely your reaction is to whatever's
happening. Once you're a fair distance away, say the 21 foot metric of the
Tueller Drill, against a bad marksman you probably have a pretty good chance;
the average distance of gun fights as of some years ago was _7_ feet.

~~~
lingua_franca
for fair comparison you need to analyze most common scenario, which is
multiple victims/targets vs single killer. it's going be day/night difference
between dealing with a guy with a machete in his hand and a gunman...

~~~
hga
I'm pretty sure the most common scenario is 1 on 1, or 1 on a few you're not
willing to abandon, like SO or family, or multiple assailants, a small
criminal "gang", on 1 or a few. The lone nutcase assault is very rare in
comparison to normal crime.

If it's a few on your side you're not willing to abandon, it's entirely
another matter and beyond the scope of our discussion.

If there's only one target, yourself, then if the one or more assailants are
already within "critical distance" I personally don't think the difference
between edged weapons and guns is "night and day", but I agree it's still
quite big.

