re: #55 Obdicut

Really really hard statistics to gather. In the case of hotplates— and guns— its more of a matter of them being dangerous in and of themselves. A burning hot element that can set most common household fabrics on fire is dangerous. Stoves are dangerous too, but far less dangerous since they’re not portable and can’t tip over on their side, etc.

Guns, likewise, are inherently very dangerous— or rather, gun + ammo is. If you keep your gun like you keep your stove— say, keeping your gun at the firing range, or locked in a gun cabinet with the ammo in a seperate place— you reduce the risk a lot. But the real danger of some average schmoe who guys and buys a glock at Walmart because he heard Obama is taking our guns and keeps it in his bedroom drawer fully loaded— obviously that dude is acting dangerously unless he’s actually at severe risk of being attacked in his house. Which is possible, in some places.

This is why the old NRA pledges from back in the 1940s were stuff like “I will never carry my gun loaded except when hunting and then I will never point my gun towards another human”, and now the NRA makes a lot of money off of teaching firearm safety classes to people its convincing need a gun, while not teaching them the biggest thing: that they’re almost certainly more at risk having that gun than not having it.

Which is why I want that research money restored that has been discussed a bit. We all want the right data to ponder this debate.