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Comment by runesofdoom | Hacker News Reader

>I just can't imagine living life in this much fear

>You don't make eye contact and keep to yourself, and nothing happens to you.

This sounds like you are living your life in fear.

Oh please. Making eye contact is a surefire way to draw the attention of someone who is acting erratically. If you have the time and will to engage directly with every single one of these people, then be my guest. But to call this living in fear is laughable to anyone who's ever spent an appreciable amount of time commuting via public transit.

If there are people erratic enough to be a source of danger from mere eye contact, thats a good reason to be carrying concealed.

I don't think "danger" is the right word. Sure, you might run into someone who could physically attack you if you act toward them in a way that sets them off, but I think most would either just act out (without actually touching you), or yell at you, or something like that.

No, it's not great, and I wish our elected representatives would actually do things to fix these situations, but the idea of "I need to carry a gun" to solve this "problem" is just bonkers.

Someone mentally unstable yelling at me is not a worry, it's not their fault. I had misunderstood the statement to mean that eye contact was enough to warrant a physical confrontation with violence. I agree with you yelling and such doesn't necessitate a gun.

US is not the place to be if you want to tell others how to live their lives…

I'm not living my life in fear by doing that, I'm just aware of the fact from learned experience that people on meth tend to not react well to the fact that someone might be staring at them, and that there is also a certain type of person in public who tries to draw confrontations. This is being realistic. I don't stare at my feet at everyone who walks into the train, but there are some characters who you are wise to not do anything to draw their conversation, and its often pretty obvious who they are the second they step foot on the transit vehicle (e.g. the one looking for fights will be posturing the minute they are on the train and accosting people).

Isn't that like saying a minefield is the same as any other field as long as you know where the land mines are and step around them? At the end of the day is it that surprising that people choose to walk somewhere else?

You can see where the mines are, it's the guy in the back of the car muttering to himself about Dr. Phil ejaculating in the water supply. Don't step on him.

These "landmines" you speak of aren't stationary targets. They can walk up to you.

Breaking news, man on subway car capable of locomotion.

No, it's more like I am aware that a bear is not a big large cuddly cat, and when one approaches I act appropriately.

It would be quite appropriate to fear a bear.

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