United States Gun Culture

Aside Markozen.com Weapons

More mass shootings in the U.S.

How many guns are there in the US?

While calculating the number of guns in private hands around the world is difficult, figures from the Small Arms Survey – a Swiss-based leading research project – estimate that there were 390 million guns in circulation in 2018.

The US ratio of 120.5 firearms per 100 residents, up from 88 per 100 in 2011, far surpasses that of other countries around the world.

More recent data also suggests that gun ownership grew significantly over the last several years. One study, published by the Annals of Internal Medicine in February, found that 7.5 million US adults – just under 3% of the population – became first new gun owners between January 2019 and April 2021.

This, in turn, exposed 11 million people to firearms in their homes, including 5 million children. About half of new gun owners in that time period were women, while 40% were either black or Hispanic.

A separate study, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2021, linked a rise in gun ownership during the pandemic to higher rates of gun injuries among – and inflicted by – children.

How do US gun deaths break down?

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a total of 45,222 people died from gun-related injuries of all causes during 2020, the last year for which complete data is available.

And while mass shooting and gun murders generally garner more media attention, of the total, 54% – about 24,300 deaths – were suicides.

A 2016 study published in the American Journal of Public Health found there was a strong relationship between higher levels of gun ownership in a state and higher firearm suicide rates for both men and women.

Advocates for stricter gun laws in the United States often cite this statistic when pushing lawmakers to devote more resources to mental health and fewer to easing gun restrictions.

How do US gun killings compare with other countries?

Are mass shootings becoming deadlier?
Deaths from the “mass shootings” that attract international attention, however, are harder to track.

While the country does not have a single definition for “mass shootings”, the FBI has for over a decade tracked “active shooter incidents” in which “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area”.

According to the FBI, there were 345 “active shooter incidents” in the United States between 2000-2020, resulting in more than 1,024 deaths and 1,828 injuries.

The deadliest such attack, in Las Vegas in 2017, killed more than 50 people and left 500 wounded. The vast majority of mass shootings, however, leave fewer than 30 people dead.

Some French speakers struggle with the English language 

Aside Markozen.com Language

Many people who do not have English as their first language struggle to speak the language.  But most newfangled speakers of English seem to master the language over a few years.  Except for one group. 

The French seem to have a hard time with certain pronunciation nuances of English.  A university professor from Montreal who rarely speaks English can sound like a back bush billy when trying to speak the language.  Third turns into turd, over there turns into hover dare, hockey becomes auckey and cows can become cowses.  I’m not quite sure why this is. 

Actually, I think it is because hard-core French people never think in anything but French.  Even though they understand and can speak English, they never think in English.  Even when they do speak English they are thinking in French and interpreting their thoughts into English words.  It gets very complicated.  

Gilles Duceppe provides a brief yet concise illustration of this phenomenon.

Stop fighting heach odder.

And this joke also clarifies this occurrence.

 In Quebec , the French do not pronounce the letter ‘H’. For example Hot Dog is pronounced Ot Dog and Hudson Hardware is pronounced Udson Ardware.  They also insert an ‘H’ where there is none, by saying Hany (instead Of Any) and Hall (instead of All). This explanation is for non-Canadians.  

One day in a French Immersion Class for 1st graders, the teacher was asking her class to describe the use of Ozonol. Little Mary got up and explained that she had fallen while roller skating and scratched her knee. She went home and her Mother cleaned the cut and  put a bandage with Ozonol on her knee and it was all better. The teacher was so proud and then asked other children if they had any explanation of the word. Little Pierre raised his hand and started to explain. ‘Well Teacher, da udder nite, me an my fodder are watching da Montreal and Tampa Ockey Game.  An den my mudder start to do da vaccum.  Den, my fodder, yell at my mudder, ai, ai, ai, ai, Tabarnack Louise, put dat dam ting haway now or I’ll stick it up your hass …..Ose an all’.

Snookball

Aside Markozen.com Bizarre, Sports
snook
  • It is a hybrid game that combines pool and soccer together, by replacing pool balls with soccer balls and the pool cue with a pair of shoes.
  • Originated from France
  • Played on a giant blow-up version of the pool table that is 3.6 by 6.6 meters!
  • Has 2 variations – the game of 8 and the game of 9.
  • The soccer balls used are 2 types of size 3 balls: weighted white ball and non-weighted colored balls.
snook1
Set Up

As in pool games, 15 numbered balls are arranged using a triangle. The 1 ball is placed at the top of the triangle, and the 8 ball is placed in the middle of the third row, leaving all rest randomly placed around the 8 ball.

How it’s played

The player that pockets the first ball get to choose which target ball group, solid or striped. The first player to pocket all the balls of his/her group, then the #8 ball, wins the game. During the game, a player continues playing as long as each strike pockets his/her own balls and doesn’t commit any faults.

The wacky sport is the brainchild of a couple of French entrepreneurs – Aurélien and Samuel – who are well known for their weird ideas.

American aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford leads strike group into Halifax for port visit

Aside Markozen.com Aviation, Military

HALIFAX, N.S. — Halifax is welcomed a big American visitor on Friday, when the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford and its strike group arrived in the Nova Scotia capital.

The carrier is the flagship of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, which includes air, maritime, and ground assets from NATO allies and partner nations, according to a news release. 

The group set sail from Norfolk, Va., on Oct. 4, and has been exercising in the Atlantic Ocean.  

This port visit is the first outside the U.S., alongside ships from NATO nations to include Demark, the Netherlands, Spain, and Germany.  

The nuclear-powered flagship is named in honour of the 38th president of the United States, who served in the navy during the Second World War.

Drought in China Reveals Puzzling ‘Alien’ Patterns in Dry Lake Bed

Aside Markozen.com Paranormal

A debilitating drought drastically depleted the water of a massive lake in China and, in turn, revealed a sizeable series of puzzling patterns that some have likened to crop circles. The curious shapes (seen in the video above) were reportedly spotted in the exposed bed of Dongting Lake, which is located in the province of Hunan. Videos of the curious formations soon spread like wildfire on Chinese social media with many people offering some rather fantastic explanations for the odd patterns. As one might imagine, due to their resemblance to crop circles, many suggested that aliens may have been behind the strange shapes, while one particularly imaginative individual simply declared “don’t touch it. It’s the door to a secret underground chamber.”

In response to the speculation, an official from the group that manages the lake suggested that the patterns are probably the remnants of a type of fishing trap, known as an ‘ai wei,’ wherein small walls are used to capture the creatures as water levels rise and then fall due to a river that connects to the lake. However, not everyone is convinced of that explanation as one local resident expressed some skepticism due to the sheer size of the shapes, noting that “each block is as big as standard football fields.” Whether the patterns were made by humans or aliens, that they could be seen at all is cause for concern among many since the site is the country’s second largest freshwater lake and the drought has caused it to lose a staggering 70 percent of its water.