There's liars, damned liars, and statistics. Those numbers above don't take into account the two million times per year in this country that people use a firearm to stop either an assault or worse from happening. Else, it would have been HIGHLY statistically improbable that I would have stopped one home invasion and one armed robbery (knife weilder) of my family. By those figures, I need to be buying lottery tickets by the trainload, since I would have already have "beaten" your odds were I naked. Adding those KNOWN two million back into the equation (what we'd have without access to firearms for personal protection) - and NOT counting the number of unreported incidents - would thus bring you figure up to 1/2 of that of your chances for being
INJURED in a car accident. (CDC study does not state that 4,563,000 people a year have accidents, but rather that 4,563,000 people a year are
injured in accidents badly enough to require emergency room treatment.) The actual number or people "being in automible accidents" is exponetially higher. And, oh, yeah. Those numbers are cumalitive, unless we get a three hundred million person rollover in this country per year, which we don't. Looked at in a realistic light these numbers are not nearly as encouraging as you'd like to believe, unless you plan on only having a life span of
1 year.
Nope. CDC shows 1 in 59 (or 1.68%) chance of being in an
injury causing auto accident in any given year, not a 1.5% chance of being in an accident. While you didn't miss it by much, you did miss it by miles.
http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/a/automobile_accidents_injury/stats.htm
42,401 deaths attributed to automobile accidents - 15,533 to murder - about three times as likely. Not
that much smaller. Certainly not enough that I would consider self defense to be a non-viable argument. Especially once you grasp the concept that those figures are for
ONE year.
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200010\NAT20001015b.html
Not by fear. By educating to the inherent benefits of not being naked when you need clothes on. In much the same fashion that seat belt usage is MUCH more accepted by the masses of today than of yesteryear because of the fact that it has been drummed into the populace over and over again. They (seatbelts) save lives and prevent injuries. I for one WILL NOT get on my motorcycle without a helmet and full protective gear and a pre-flight check. Why? These things save lives and reduce injuries. I WILL NOT get in a car without checking the air pressure in my tires and fastening my seat belt BEFORE my key goes into the ignition. Why? Because these things save lives and reduce injuries. I WILL NOT go naked into the world where potential bodily harm awaits the naked. Why? See above.
I think perhaps you need to learn how to read and understand numbers before making that assertion.
No popped vessels...sorry. Just a sad shake of the head when someone who professes to be "a member for the cause" doesn't even grasp basic numbers.
edited for spelling.