(September 3, 2020 at 7:35 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote:(September 3, 2020 at 6:06 pm)Rev. Rye Wrote: And yet lightning strikes don’t hit America at a disproportionately high rate (adjusted for population and sheer size of the nation) the same way gun violence does.
Well, amazingly, how often lightening strikes hits people depends on how much time people spend out of door without lightning protection in areas of frequent lightning storms. At the beginning of the 20th century, Americans had a higher chance of being struck and killed by lightning than People of just about any country in the world today. Back then, on average, 6 Americans out of every million can expected to be killed by lightning each year.
So in the worst year of lightning fatalities recorded in American history, the average American had may be 1/10 the chance of being killed by lightning each year compared to Americans of today had of being killed by guns.
Fast forward to now, for the average American Today, lightning rods and indoor sedentary habits have reduced rate of lightning fatality by a factor of 30. So the average American now has 1/300 the chance of killed by lightning compared to being killed by guns. A factor of 300 is very rough indeed
