Millionen von Erwachsenen in den Vereinigten Staaten haben ernsthaft darüber nachgedacht, irgendwann in ihrem Leben eine andere Person zu erschießen, was eine riesige und bisher nicht erfasste Gruppe darstellt, die Gefahr läuft, bewaffnete Gewalt zu begehen.

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I’m curious if other countries have similar rates of people considering serious violence against another person, just not involving guns specifically.

This is really dumb. Who hasn’t thought about and considered punching someone in the face? I’ve never did it, but I seriously considered it a few times.

I don’t have a gun, but if I did, then I’m sure I’d think about using that, and then not do it because I’m not actually a monster.

Also this is just a phone survey.

I’m curious to see the scientific opinions on other common topics like “would you think about jumping off of a bridge” or “walk into traffic”.

Absolutely trash science, it’s normal human behavior to plan a hypothetical murder, and such thoughts do not represent a serious risk factor in people. As evidence, the vast majority of shootings and murders are not throughly planned, and those that are are remarkable for their execution.

To me this study is a political piece meant to drum up Anti-gun sentiment in the reader

The sentiment is hardly new.

>**“Frustration**“
Dorothy Parker, 1928

>*If I had a shiny gun,*
*I could have a world of fun*
*Speeding bullets through the brains*
*Of the folk who give me pains;*

>*Or had I some poison gas?*
*I could make the moments pass*
*Bumping off a number of*
*People whom I do not love.*

>*But I have no lethal weapon.*
*Thus does Fate our pleasure step on!*
*So they still are quick and well*
*Who should be, by rights, in hell*.

Reading this article, I’m unconvinced that it’s at all meaningful.

>The data revealed that 7.3% of adults in the United States have thought about shooting someone at some point in their lives. This percentage translates to roughly 19.4 million people nationwide. When asked about the past year specifically, 3.3% of respondents reported having these thoughts, which equates to more than 8.6 million individuals.

How are we defining „thought about shooting someone“ in this case? Could it be while playing videogames? Watching an action movie? Driving in shitty traffic and getting frustrated? Does it mean „actually considered shooting someone before ultimately deciding against it“ or just „the idea went through their head?“

Over 15 Millions of adults in the United States are TRAINED to shoot other adults. They have to talk about killing and shoot little paper people. That’s a bit different than a gun themed ‘Power Fantasy’

Was this just a black Friday survey?

Kidding aside, did they include timing of when and why and triggers in the study? (Haven’t read it yet). And if we’re tslking about the idea of armed violence as a defense or position of protection and saying „I could see myself in this situation being willing to shoot aomeone“

Millions of cavemen have considered hitting another caveman with a club

Yes, and the ones that say they haven’t considered it are lying. The difference is that most of us are well adjusted enough to know right from wrong and have enough self control to avoid violence.

At some point…more like every day

Thought crimes do not count as crimes

About 7% had ever „thought about shooting someone“ *at all*

They also asked if people had thought specifically about buying a gun in order to shoot someone. That’s going slightly beyond just one intrusive thought, and arguably involves a degree of rumination, but doesn’t necessarily count as „seriously“ thinking about it. About 21% of the people who had thought about shooting someone at all said yes yes to this question. This gives us about 1.4% of the sample who have thought about shooting someone beyond just a passing intrusive thought. Obviously that 1.4% will itself have variations in how much they thought about it, and how seriously they considered it.

It’s very likely that some people fantasized about doing it but would never ever actually do it. It’s also likely that some people really did consider it but never even made it to the „buy a gun“ stage.

An even smaller percentage, about 6%, said they had taken a gun to the location with intent. *THIS IS WHAT I WOULD UNDISPUTABLY CONSIDER „SERIOUSLY THINKING ABOUT SHOOTING SOMEONE“*

That’s 6% of the original 7%, by the way, meaning 0.42% have seriously considered shooting someone.

TL;DR The headline doesn’t match the findings (to the surprise of nobody).

I don’t think this is something only in America, it should be very common only in many other places the guns are not very easy to get, but people will think using other methods in place of guns.

US adults thought about defenestration too, but only adult Russians seems to carry through with that one.

This is one of those studies that you wonder why they bothered. People seriously consider all kinds of things. There’s a HUGE leap between seriously considering something and actually planning to do it. I would argue that 99% of the population has seriously considered suicide, but only a small percentage actually has made real plans to do it. (still too high and growing percentage, but very small relative to everyone)

I wouldn’t say this group is „at risk“. They are just human and having random thoughts they suppress. If anything, the people who commit crimes quite often don’t think them through beforehand. However, this is why religions always pitch the idea that people would be horrible people if they weren’t watched by a higher power. When, in reality, there’s no difference. If anything, the population that is more likely to commit violent crime is statistically much more religious, but this isn’t a good correlation either. That correlation is probably more due to education level. Nevertheless, you hear politicians always say that if we promoted religion more, we would have less crime, and people buy it because we’ve all had bad thoughts.

I consider shooting someone everyday. But those are just thoughts. What separates us from animals is not acting on those thoughts.

Is there a correlation with thoughts like this causing violence? I’m not sure what the concern is, and a few logical leaps are taken in the title. 

Does it count if you think about it, but don’t have the means to do it? I think about launching missiles at other vehicles that don’t follow traffic rules, but my car does not have a rocket launcher. So far.

I only read the linked article, not the study. But did they differentiate between thinking about attacking others vs thinking about having to defend yourself? I think those are rather different things.

For example: my controlling ex threatened me after I left him, so I bought a security system and a gun just in case he carried through. He didn’t, but I did spend time thinking about „what if I actually have to do it?. Could I pull that trigger to defend myself when I’m scared and things are chaotic?“

I’m curious if the number/percentage goes up or down as we age? Is there a greater percentage of older people who have considered it (because life and idiots)? Or is there a greater percentage of younger people who have considered it (lack of maturity/life/etc)?

As a gun owner admittedly the only person I’ve ever considered shooting is myself. And honestly cancer wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be so I’m still good on that front.