Hacker News Reader

Statistics are GREAT until you win the "I'm being fucking attacked" lottery.......

See someone else's comment above about privilege and naïveté.

With the same thinking you should walk with a head shield because I heard people getting comets on their heads. It's great until you are in the comet lottery.

You clearly haven't reviewed (or perhaps understood) the wide difference in the statistics involved with both.

If there was an 0.4% chance of me being killed by being hit in the head by a comet, and if wearing a bike helmet would give me a 75% chance of surviving, then yes, I would want the choice to walk around in my stupid bike helmet.

That's about the level of risk and investment we are talking about here.

[1] https://www.statista.com/topics/1750/violent-crime-in-the-us...

It seems you forgot the point that the probability of comet falling is increased by people wearing bike helmet.

You might want to listen the "science vs" episode dedicated to guns for some actual science behind it and the role of guns in violent crime: https://gimletmedia.com/shows/science-vs/z3hlvr

Reply on news.ycombinator.com