Life Kills

I was just looking at the National Safety Council's oddly fascinating (in a rather macabre way) page of "odds of death." One thing I found particularly interesting, in light of some claims by pro-gun activists, was that an average American's lifetime odds of dying by "assault by firearm" are 1 in 324. That doesn't seem too bad until you consider other statistics (all odds are lifetime).

Chances of dying from:

Exposure to forces of nature (heat, cold, lightning, flood, etc.)- 1 in 3,421
Exposure to smoke, fire and flames- 1 in 1,167
Contact with venomous animals and plants- 1 in 46,539
Exposure to electric current, radiation, temperature, and pressure- 1 in 9,308
Exposure to inanimate mechanical forces- 1 in 1,366
Exposure to animate mechanical forces (bites from various animals)- 1 in 27,120
Air and space transport accidents- 1 in 5,552
Being a bus occupant- 1 in 94,242

The point of this list is that we have an odd obsession with all sorts of awful ways of dying, such as being struck by lightning, being bitten by poisonous animals, being in a plane crash, etc., but we don't really pay attention to "ordinary" causes of death, such as dying in car crashes (1 in 247), falling (1 in 200), or the aforementioned "assault by firearm."

It really doesn't matter whether you die because your plane crashed or a highly venomous reptile from some faraway land bit you, or you kick the bucket because you hit a lamppost late at night or you slipped on a bunch of marbles and broke your neck. Dead is dead. As a matter of fact, it's a lot safer to fly than it is to drive. You are more likely to die while driving to the airport than while flying on the airplane you board there. Food for thought.