Drive By or Driveway

I will grant that the “drive by” is more common in cities than in suburban or rural locals just as it is pretty clear that the driveway is more common in Westchester County than in Manhattan. According to the only study of drive by shootings in the United States which I was able to find, there are just over a thousand drive by shootings per year in the United States leading to the death of 300 people and injuring not quite one thousand. My state averaged fourteen incidents per year, two deaths and ten injuries.

Compare that to the 300 deaths, and 18,000 injuries per year in driveway accidents mentioned yesterday. When you take into account that at least some, perhaps most of the deaths and injuries from drive by shootings involve specific victims selected by the shooters for specific reasons it becomes clear that your average person has much more to fear from the SUV in the driveway than hoodlums on the city street.

Your child is 12 times more likely to be backed over by someone in your driveway than mine is to be shot in a drive by.