The merits of lump sum versus annuity aside, the point is that the headline number comes from a naive total of how many payments are made in the annuity option. So when it’s listed as a $2 billion jackpot, it’s actually worth something closer to half of that as a lump sum.

That wouldn’t work to reduce lottery taxes. The lottery itself isn’t return on investment in stocks or whatever, and can’t be held indefinitely the way an appreciating stock can.

I think you’re relying too heavily on your anecdotal experience here. Maybe you’ve never seen a gun fired in anger, but there are about 13,000 gun homicides per year.

Plus, the nature of gatherings mean that a very small number of events can have many witnesses, especially if defined to include people who heard gunshots.

Take the most extreme example, the 2017 Vegas shooting, the single worst mass shooting event in American history. There were people killed and injured in the event. Under anyone’s definition that was a mass shooting.

There were 22,000 attendees at that music festival. How many staff, crew, contractors, vendors, performance artists and their own staffs? How many cops and first responders were there? How many were in the 3200-room hotel and casino who had to be evacuated during the response? How many people heard gunshots in the open air, or saw muzzle flashes from the hotel room? 50,000?

Same with the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting. Lots of people were within hearing range of the shots.

These types of events have a lot of people present. If 4 people are dying from a shooting, what’s the average number of people wounded? How many are present?

The math is somewhat counterintuitive, and can explain a lot of the high number.

People generally aren’t sentenced to the maximum penalty for a crime, so it’s not very useful to compare the maximum potential sentence for a charged crime versus the actual sentence received after conviction on another crime. The Indianapolis hit and run carried potential penalties of more than 15 years. This DVD guy will probably get less than 5.

That’s why it’s our responsibility as consumers to align their shareholder interests to doing the right fucking thing. Boycotts and other consumer action are part of their calculations on what the shareholder interests are, so a large population of informed consumers who vote their conscience with their wallet will provide pressure to do the right thing.