Skeptics Stack Exchange
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Questions tagged [united-states]

Use this tag for questions about claims based in the United States, or limited to the United States.

The United States of America (also referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, the States, or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district.

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Were there 18 school shootings in the US from Jan 1 to Feb 14, 2018?

CBC Radio (Canada) reported earlier this evening that the Florida shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School "was the 18th school shooting in the U.S. since the beginning of 2018.". On its face this seems a bit unlikely; also due to the fact…
jkf
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Entire GOP voted against letting senators read the new tax bill?

Following the passing of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the U.S. Senate on December 2nd 2017, this photo has been making the rounds on social media (facebook in my case). The tweet by Jesse Lehrich claims literally all 52Rs voted against letting Senators…
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In the US, are illegal immigrants more likely to commit crimes?

Trump has claimed numerous times that part of the reason we need to close the border is that the illegal immigrants are prone to crimes. I want to check these claims. Are illegal immigrants more prone to committing crimes then the average US…
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Is it possible to fly 4 helicopters anywhere in a country without official knowledge?

According to reports, there were 4 helicopters used in the raid on Osama Bin Laden. Is it conceivable that even one helicopter could be flown so close to the capital of another country without raising alarm bells? Considering these were military…
going
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Is a police officer 18x more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is to be by a police officer?

PragerU is a YouTube channel for expressive conservative views. They published a video titled Are The Police Racist? (with over a million views) that has this claim [at 2:48]: a police officer is eighteen and a half times more likely to be killed…
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Does the US spend more public money (i.e. tax/capita) on Health Care than other developed countries?

The author John Green on a YouTube post Why are American Health Care costs so high? makes the (referenced) claim that US public health expenditure per capita, is higher than most other developed countries - even where those countries then provide…
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Do these pictures depict David Hogg after two separate crises?

A post circulating on social media - 48,000 shares and counting so far - depicts still images of two news reports, one in California in August 2017 and one in Florida in February 2018 after the Parkland school shooting. The post alleges that both…
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Did close to 3,000 Puerto Ricans die in Hurricane Maria?

CNN reports: Earlier this month, [Puerto Rico]'s governor formally raised the death toll from Hurricane Maria to an estimated 2,975 from 64 following a study conducted by researchers at The George Washington University. It also reports that…
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Does America not lead the world in mass shootings?

According to an OpEd in the NY Post by John Lott and Michael Weisser that cites a report by the Crime Prevention Research Center, America doesn't lead the world in mass shootings. "Of the 86 countries where we have identified mass public…
James G.
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Are there more open jobs than available developers?

A recent Stack Overflow blog post claims that: With nearly five open jobs for every available software developer, the need for qualified technical talent is higher than ever. I have seen this claim repeated many times, with different numbers…
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Did the UK homicide rate go up after handgun ownership was banned?

During debates about gun control, I have seen gun advocates quote a statistic that the UK homicide rate increased in 1996 following a ban on handguns. Furthermore, the claim usually goes on to suggest that what bought violent crime back down to…
Bob Tway
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Are Americans more likely to be killed by vending machines than terrorist refugees?

The Financial Times did some analysis of Donald Trump's controversial immigration restrictions (which were claimed to be about protecting Americans from terrorism). They focus on analysing risk from refugees since (my emphasis): President Donald…
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Did two crisis actors both claim to be the father of the same child killed in the Uvalde, Texas shooting?

A friend-of-a-friend posted a BitChute video on my friend's Facebook wall: Two crisis actor "fathers" share the same daughter in Uvalde, Texas The description states: NBC and CNN interview two different crisis actors who claim to be the same…
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Is it illegal for regular US citizens to possess or read the Podesta emails published by WikiLeaks?

While referring to the the Podesta emails which were leaked by WikiLeaks this week, CNN's Chris Cuomo said on live TV: Also interesting is, remember: It's illegal to possess these stolen documents. It's different for the media, so everything you…
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Can 1 in 1,000 black men expect to be killed over the course of their lifetime by the police?

In Last Week Tonight of June 8th, 2020, John Oliver mentions that 1 in 1,000 black men can expect to be killed by the police. At 5:05 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf4cea5oObY I have tracked the source to Edwards, Lee & Esposito, 2019, "Risk of…
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