The mismatch between gut feelings based on channel-surfing, on one hand, and the actual data on the other is playing out in Canada right now. The current Conservative party minority government is playing to people's media-driven fear that violent crime is up, even though the statistics do not support this in any clear way.
In more specific terms, the absolute number of crimes in the Toronto area, plus the fact that these tend to be reported nationwide by a Torontocentric media, seem to contribute to the belief in rural areas that violence, and gun violence in particular, is an urban Ontario phenomenon. Yet Saskatchewan, Yukon, Nunavut, the NWT -- these have the highest murder rates in the country. Alberta, home of responsible long-gun-owners outraged at gun controls that simply
must be aimed at curbing urban gunplay, has a substantially higher homicide rate than Ontario.
But the national media tells people living in these regions that violence is a large and growing problem of urban Ontario. People believe and vote accordingly.
Anyhow, this ought to be about dumbass Oklahomans. Sorry.