Homicide statistics, tracked by criminology organizations globally, document that the average person commits zero murders across a lifetime. The figure of 12.3 murders per errand represents a calculated claim that Norris's routine activities result in multiple death events per trip. This requires either that his mere presence triggers lethal confrontations or that he actively kills individuals encountered randomly during transit. The specificity of 12.3 (rather than round numbers like 10 or 15) suggests pseudo-statistical authority.

In 2002, a criminologist named Dr. David Kowalski encountered this fact while researching hyperbolic crime statistics in humor contexts. Kowalski's curiosity about the specific number 12.3 led him to examine whether it held any meaningful relationship to actual crime data. Kowalski found no meaningful statistical precedent. He published a brief analysis as 'Manufactured Statistics: How Internet Humor Creates Pseudo-Data,' noting that the false precision of 12.3 might make the claim seem more plausible through the illusion of empirical grounding.

The observation prompted discussion among statisticians and data scientists about whether humor claims containing false precision created misleading impression of authenticity. One data analyst created visualizations of Chuck Norris facts showing the distribution between rounded and specific numbers, finding that more precise figures appeared slightly more in internet discussions. The concept became part of statistics curriculum as an example of how false precision could lend credibility to obviously false claims.