Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

TheQuarantinian t1_jcpcx2m wrote

Every year 70,000 people go to the emergency room because of a skateboarding accident.

Every year 580,000 for bike accidents, 900 deaths.

500 annual injuries from lawn darts result in three federal bans under threat of prison and perpetual cultural memory that they are the deadliest and most dangerous thing ever sold.

What are the two numbers such that:

X: if this many people are injured/killed the thing is too dangerous to sell and must be banned

Y: if this many people are injured/killed it is clearly too popular/profitable to ban

1

EnvironmentalValue18 t1_jcs27d1 wrote

Well, I feel that those other things are more widespread. Think of how many people don’t have lawns to begin with. Then you’re throwing giant spikes which could hurt others versus doing a recreational activity that generally results in harming yourself and not others. So I think it’s a little different even though I understand what you mean with the number discrepancy.

If we went that way, we would have to ban a ton of sports, though. Wrestling, racing, football, etc etc. not to mention there’s an outside element with the bike statistic as I’m sure that’s everything from mountain biking and BMX to getting hit by a car on the highway.

All of them can be hazardous, but I think lawn darts made a lot more sense to ban of the 3 things presented.

1

TheQuarantinian t1_jd085yi wrote

People go for low hanging fruit and are always willing to ban something they don't care about doing themselves

1