Odds
Accidental firearms death is less than plane crash or spacecraft explosion. Seriously, spacecraft explosion occurs frequently enough that they track it?
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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December 22nd, 2009 at 11:14 am
They’re probably putting spacecraft explosions in with the aircraft accidents, since a spacecraft explosion, relatively speaking, probably kills a statistically significant number of people.
I’m not a statistician, but I’ll probably stay in a Holiday Inn Express ….. sometime!
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm
That reminds me of a line in “Broken Arrow”:
“I don’t know what’s scarier–that we’ve lost a nuclear weapon, or that it happens often enough that there’s a code word for it.”
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:24 pm
I am a statistician (statistics credit in my first degree, not professionally or anything) and I wouldn’t consider “spacecraft explosion” to be a significant cause of death (very low incidence, only applies to a highly limited and restricted demographic).
It does however make for a striking comparison to accidental firearm deaths. “Truth lies and statistics” and all that. Not so much something to base life-decisions around, more a nice tidbit to fit into humorous diner time conversation.
December 22nd, 2009 at 2:04 pm
In the space business, only nine out of ten launches are successful. This includes all means of failure, not just explosions, but a remarkable number of rocket launches do explode.
I’d bet some spectacular Soviet and Russian launch bombs account for most of the injuries and deaths.
December 22nd, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Well, the Space Transportation System (Space Shuttles) have killed more people than my firearms have..
December 22nd, 2009 at 3:30 pm
Packetman got it; clicking through to the original source, it’s clearly one lumped category. “Air and space transport accidents, V95-V97 … lifetime odds, 1 in 5862.” I imagine airplane accidents are the bulk, but lumping spacecraft in doubtless makes sense to categorizing scientists.
Other interesting stats:
Motorcycle rider, 1 in 802
Car occupant, 1 in 272
(Clearly we need to ban motor vehicles… for the children!)
Falls, all types combined, 1 in 184
(Sebastian’s 1 in 4238 is falls off furniture only.)
Contact with hot tap water, 1 in 119,998
(Poor bastard! Regulate your hot water heater.)
Assault, all types combined, 1 in 207
(Thanks, I’ll take my chances owning firearms.)
December 22nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
This may explain why there are no guns on the shuttle.
December 22nd, 2009 at 7:34 pm
Where’s markadelphia when you need him? Someon has to come on here and say something like, “Yeah, well even if gun accidents were one in six billion we’d still have room for legislation that would improve those odds. If it could save just one life…”
If it could save just one life, shouldn’t we all buy AKs, like right now?
If it could save just one life, shouldn’t we arrest and imprison a few anti gun legislators, banning them for life from public service? Hmmm? You don’t HATE children, do you, you child-hating child-hater you?
December 23rd, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Space craft explosions are much more common in unmanned testing and military applications.