What should we do about 'assault rifles'? American deaths in 2016 (most recent good data I could find): Heart disease: 633,842 Medical errors: c. 250,000 Motor vehicle crashes: 37,461 Work accidents: 5,190 Drowning: c. 3,500 Murdered by knife: 1,604 Murdered by rifle: 374
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NOT compare these numbers as a rationale for banning or not banning (they are not all risk factors to try to ban). By that logic the low death rate due to nuclear weapons suggests not advocating their ban.
Rifles don't have a long-tail distribution of mortality potential that stretches into the billions.
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Agreed. And by comparison things like water (to avoid drowning) are not practical for banning and distract from your discussion that considers what to do about the risk posed by rifles. I also agree that there may be bigger (not mutally exclusive) fish to fry for life saving.
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Ya this take is pretty silly - the notion that there are larger inevitable problems doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care about smaller tractable problems.
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