If we really looked at the statistics about what kills people we would worry a lot less about terrorism than we currently do. The number of people who were killed in the Paris attacks is less than the number of people who die in auto accidents every six months in the state I live in which is Massachusetts . I think that by treating these attacks as the worst things that is happening we are actually just helping the terrorists get what they want, which is to make us crazy and uncomfortable in our own communities.
If we actually gave the results of terrorist activities the amount of attention they deserve based on the harm they actually do we would not treat them as much of an issue and would put ourselves in a much better position to deal with the terrorist activities and we would stop helping the terrorists get what they want from their actions.
In reality apart from the World Trade Center most terrorist attacks have had pretty small real impacts other than creating fear which we actually create by taking them so seriously. The attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi Kenya killed 67 people and that was one of the very worst in terms of the number and of dead and wounded of all recent attacks. The more recent attack in Mali killed 22 people. These losses are not inconsequential but the consequences are not what should require us to treat them like the biggest problem facing our societies as we now treat them. The Paris attacks killed 130 people which is still a small number in relation to a lot of other ways that people are harmed in our societies.
We need to get out of reactive mode where all we do is react to things as they happen because that makes us focus on less important things. If instead we took a proactive approach to problems we would be more likely to focus on really significant problems like global warming. Terrorism today is the best example of the kinds of things we react to by giving them too much attention as a result of our reactive approach to dealing with problems. Based on our reactive approach to problems instead of a proactive approach which would make us focus more on the real important issue is facing us as a society. Climate change is wiping out entire communities all at once in many parts of the globe and we pay far less attention than we do to terrorists who attacked 100 or 200 people at a time.
Even if you look at the issue as just relating to gun violence is clear that terrorism is not the heart of the problem particularly here in America where guns are everywhere. In the United States have been about 60 people were killed in terrorist attacks in the last decade. Only about35 of these have involved Jiadist terrorism and the rest are instances of other kinds of domestic terrorism. This compares with the number of people killed by guns in general during the same period which is over 280,000. If you only look at mass shootings the numbers are still such that terrorism is only a minor part of the statistics. There are about 375 mass shooting deaths in the United States every year over the last few years.
The basis for these statistics is politifacts.
Ross's Writings 