I had a really bad car accident in 2008--easily could have killed me. Maybe a little more speed or a different angle and I would have died. There was absolutely nothing I could do to avoid it either. Everyone who drives or rides in a car accepts that risk every day. The odds are pretty grim, basically there's a close to 1:1 lifetime chance of serious injury in a car accident, and 1/78% chance of death in the US. About 1,000 kids die in car accidents every year and the total number is 40,000+. The number went up significantly as smart phones became widely used, about 3,000 more per year as far as I can tell.
People accept those risks as a cost of doing business. Many drivers get right back behind the wheel after a serious accident. I know I did. After about 2 days of driving I was numb to the risk again.
At the same time, if there's a violent crime, specifically a school shooting people freak out about it for at least a few weeks. They don't freak out about ghetto shootings, but only about school shootings, which is really pretty weird.
When a parent puts a kid into their car they expose them to about a 1% chance of death over the course of a year. The school shooting odds are microscopic--probably down into lightning strike territory--but people feel strongly compelled, at times, to "do" something to prevent school shootings. It's just kind of weird how it works.
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