12-08-2015, 02:15 PM
(12-08-2015, 02:09 PM)Benton Wrote: The problem is there's no reliable way to know if someone shot in Syria was shot because he was robbed or because he was in the middle of an armed conflict. So a number of countries that may have a high number of gun related deaths are discounted because of recognized discord.
I can see that. Admittedly, neither one of us knows the methods used to adjust to remove the armed conflict data since the article does not report it. While there is certainly nothing that could be done that would make it 100% reliable, I'd wager that they they could be more than 60% reliable in separating those out. Either way, they are inflating under reported regions, so I'm betting they are taking that uncertainty into account. But taking out the numbers of casualties from the conflict itself is the right thing to do, statistically speaking.
Of course, regardless of all of that, the countries involved in those armed conflicts are in areas that have vast differences from us in the social, political, and economic climates. When compared with our other developed nations, which are not those with armed conflicts within their borders, we don't fair well either. I'm actually most shocked at our ranking among the former Soviet Bloc.
