On 8/8/2019 2:17 AM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 7 Aug 2019 22:22:54 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote:

On 8/7/2019 9:57 PM, John B. Slocomb wrote:
On Wed, 7 Aug 2019 14:57:33 -0400, Frank Krygowski wrote:


The prohibition against hand grenades and other bombs works pretty well.
So do the restrictions on machine guns. Very few own mortars or flame
throwers. We should be able to apply reasonable restrictions to guns.
Let the pretend soldier boys play with virtual military arms in computer
games. That should be enough to satisfy their fantasies. It works in
most countries.

Perhaps in the U.S. where apparently the citizens are too complacent
to make their own bombs but here, in a less well developed country, we
just has a rash of some 6 bombs that exploded (and 1 "dud") in Bangkok
in the past few days. All "home made" bombs. In the South home made
bombs are so common that they have recently banned metal LPG tanks (a
common container used in home bomb making).

As you know, I'm interested in data. How many bomb deaths per year?

It is hard to say as I can't find any statistics.

That _should_ make you realize that the problem is relatively tiny! IOW,
bomb control works pretty well.

But I did find a
Times report dated August 2016 that stated that the bombings had
"ground on for more than a decade and killed more than 5,000 people".
https://time.com/4449653/thailand-bombing-what-to-know/

So maybe 500 per year? Less than one bomb fatality per 100,000
population during an insurgency, i.e. a low-level attempt at war.

The U.S. more than triples that rate using guns, with no need for any
insurgency.



The report stated:

On Thursday, a bomb exploded in a market in the southern province of
Trang, killing one person and injuring six.

Later, on Thursday night, two bombs exploded 20 minutes apart in the
resort city of Hua Hin, killing one Thai woman and injuring at least
20, including ten foreign nationals.

Hours later, on Friday morning two more blasts killed another person
and injured four more according to Thai authorities. Thai media
reports that the woman killed was a street food vendor.

Also on Friday morning, another two bombs exploded in Surat Thani
outside police stations, killing one and injuring several others,
according to local media.

Two bombs also exploded in Phuket around 8 a.m. local time in front of
a hotel and a police booth in the tourist area of Patong, injuring one
person, reports local media.

About 200 kilometers north in Phang Nga province, two bombs went off
in Khao Lak and another in Khuek Khak around 9 a.m. local time. Hours
earlier, over 80 shops were gutted by a fire in the Takua Pa market
frequented by tourists.

Those accounts total four deaths.

Thailand's population is roughly the same as those of California plus
Texas. If someone wrote an article about a total of four Californians
plus Texans getting killed by guns, nobody would publish it. Too
ordinary, too boring.


--
- Frank Krygowski