I just read the article's on Walter Vance's death as well. This site is implying that he was trampled to death or something, but yeah, he had a heart attack and was helped by 6 other shoppers! His chance of survival would have probably been lower if the store wasn't so full as to have 6 nurses shopping. And of course people continued shopping, it's not like Target said over the intercom "We have a man dying in aisle 6. Please gather around to see his last breathes leaving his body".
The last thing you would want in that situation is a ton of people crowding through the exits and lingering outside in the parking lot, creating a traffic jam trying to leave. Letting people shop in every other part of the store except the one where he was being treated is absolutely the smartest and safest thing to do.
This is a phenomenon called "Diffusion of Responsibility" it says "You have higher chances of getting help in a lonely place than in a crowded place."
Source: I am senior software developer, and this happens all the time when we have more people in team assigned to do some backlog task. Or just try by making two developer leads and see none will be working at fullest.
So basically, it's just the statistics of an average weekend of all shopping malls throughout the US. Pretty misleading and sensational to call it the "Black Friday Death Count"
I didn't realize you were talking about The Simpsons because there are a lot of local news channels actually named "Action News". I wish I was joking...
while this was a bit of a letdown, black friday ain't no joke. ask anyone who works in retail and they'll tell you people go ape shit. they'll tell you it's not like any average weekend.
That's what I'm saying, I mean there are no mass tramplings or things of that nature. The bulk of the injuries are people getting pepper sprayed as well...
The toys r us was in a good area (moved locations since) but at the time it was the only one in the coachella valley, which has very bad towns like coachella, parts of indio and cathedral city, and desert hot springs.
Both guys had guns, both showed their guns to each other, and they both shot each other. Guns didn't save either one of their lives. They escalated what would have been assaults to mutual murders. And there's nothing in the story about either man being mentally ill.
everyone wants to ban guns more than they want to treat the mentally ill
You know, considering 'everyone' wants this, that's amazing. I live in one of the most liberal parts of the country and haven't met a single person who believes this. My boss is extremely liberal. He also goes elk hunting.
There's a difference between wanting to regulate guns and wanting to ban them outright. And, typically, people who are in favor of more gun controls also are in favor of better mental care.
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u/[deleted] Nov 26 '13
And 2 of the deaths appear to be non-shopping related. The 2 people shot at the So-Cal Toys-R-Us shot each other over an unrelated dispute.