According to Wired, you are more likely to die from law enforcement than from terrorism. As a matter of fact, you’re 80 times as likely to die driving off the road — but hopefully not in this auto-erotic manner.
Here’s their assessment:
Sept. 11, 2001 was undoubtedly one of the darkest and deadliest days in United States history. Al-Qaida’s attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center killed 2,976 people, and the country recoiled in horror as we witnessed the death of thousands of Americans when the towers fell.
In the five years since that shattering day, the government has spent billions on anti-terrorism projects, instituted a color-coded alert system that has never been green, banned fingernail clippers and water bottles from airplanes, launched a pre-emptive war on false pretenses, and advised citizens to stock up on duct tape and plastic sheeting.
But despite the never-ending litany of warnings and endless stories of half-baked plots foiled, how likely are you, statistically speaking, to die from a terrorist attack?
Comparing official mortality data with the number of Americans who have been killed inside the United States by terrorism since the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma reveals that scores of threats are far more likely to kill an American than any terrorist — at least, statistically speaking.
In fact, your appendix is more likely to kill you than al-Qaida is.
Perhaps they could allow us to take common items on airplanes (which don’t even rank on the chart) again and restore our emphasis from “law enforcement” to “protect and serve.”
|
S E V E R E |
|
H I G H |
|
E L E V A T E D |
|
G U A R D E D |
|
L O W |
Chart courtesy of Wired.
sucker, ʟʟᴄ