Only 20% of shots fired are reported

Well that's interesting. From SpotShotter: Only 1 in 5 Gunshots Reported to 911.

Only about one in five gunshots is reported to police, according to 2013 statistics released this week by ShotSpotter, a private firm that provides gunfire detection in a number of U.S. cities. The firm said its sensors counted 51,000 gunshots in 48 cities last year. About 15 percent of the shots occurred on New Year's Eve and the Fourth of July, and 42 percent occurred during summer months.

Only 20%. You can start manufacturing all sorts of reasons for under-reporting including both questions about the report itself and how data was collected, to the circumstances under which shots fired are reported. But Americans are by and large an easy going and tolerant people. It is amazing what doesn't get reported. I live in a city and periodically, some scavengers will work over the neighborhood, rifling cars. When this happens, everyone is supposed to call 911 and report the thefts but probably only 50% actually do so. Why? They don't want to waste police resources, they have no expectation that it will make a difference, they are embarrassed because they left the car unlocked, they feel like its their fault because they left the computer on the back seat in plain sight, etc. As Alexander Pope would have it (An Essay on Man Epistle II)

The proper study of mankind is man.

And indeed, he is "The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!"

Framing is so important in reporting. It wasn't only the 20% number that caught my eye but the 51,000 gunshots. And those 51,000 gunshots in only roughly fifty cities. 50,000 sounds like a war zone but that translates into only 1 shot on average per 6,000 people per year. But averages hide intensity. In some small number of locations, it probably is a war zone and in other vast swaths of area you can probably live a lifetime and never hear a shot fired in anger.

Still, that 50,000 gunshots is an arresting number.