Not counting guns* of course. I’m thinking of tools or substances that are Darwin Award material. A nail gun? Battery acid?
*Perhaps material for another thread. You can walk into a store and buy a 12-gauge pump action shotgun or semiauto rifle and ammo no questions asked; but handguns are regulated. Go figure.
Tobacco products.
There’s no definite answer. Alcohol is dangerous in all sorts of ways (you can get alcohol poisoning, you can drive drunk, etc), but you can also consume vast quantities of it with nothing to show for it. Cars are big, heavy things capable of going very fast, but millions of people drive everyday with no harm whatsoever.
Things that seem entirely safe and benign can be lethal. A sledge hammer is not in and of itself dangerous, but if someone uses it as a weapon, it’s certainly more dangerous to that person than a pack of smokes could be.
A car.
I would think that it would depend on how you define hazardous.
Do you mean something that once you have bought it is most likely to kill you accidenatlly through no fault of your own or do you mean something that simply kills a lot of people anually? The latter would most likely be something extremly common but relatively harmless. Dogbites kill far more people each year than shark bites each year and more people die of alcohol overdose than any other drug if I remember my statistics correctly, but that does not make dogs more dangerous than sharks or alcohol more lethal than cocaine.
You also have to take into consideration just how much due care you put into the handeling of whatever you buy. Lots of people manage to kill themselves with everyday items because of sheer stupidity.
If you are talking about killing somebody intentionally it is something else altogether again.
My guess would be that the most hazerdous item you can buy would probably something like water or electricity for most purposes.
It also depends on how you define restriction. Cars have been mentioned, but you have to be licensed, insured and, in many states, have your car inspected regularly.
I can purchase a car from a private individual without being forced to prove any of those things. Perhaps ymmv from place to place, tho …
I like the water and electricity ideas, but if we include that, than I’ll have to add a rock. I don’t even have to buy it. Just pick it up. And bash a head or two.
Fair enough; I think I was confusing “owning” with “using,” which is a significant distinction in this case.
How 'bout a knife? So far as I know, there are no restrictions on ownership of any number of heavy, dangerous-looking chef’s knives. Some stores might require you to be over 18, but I think that’s it. And the Rwandan genocide was largely carried out with large knives. (Machetes - probably more formidable than the average chef’s knife, but not by a whole lot.)
Fertilizer and diesel ala Oklahoma City can be pretty hazardous.
Sex. The worst kind of death is slow.
I don’t mean to hijack your thread here, but they do ask questions when you buy a shotgun. The one I remember on the form is “Are you a fugitive from justice?” They call you in, there’s just not a waiting period.
There are a lot of very dangerous chemicals you can buy at your local grocery or hardware store - some of those pesticides and herbicides are pretty nasty, and even Drano can be a pretty horrible substance. I know a plumber who says that if he comes to your house and you’ve used a chemical like that he automatically charges you an extra hundred bucks. That’s not much in the “deaths total” column, but definately in the “potential danger” one.
Happy Fun Ball.
To further the hijack, you certainly get asked questions when you buy a shotgun or a rifle. You must complete a federal form that asks you whether or not you belong to a variety of prohibited categories. And, depending on the state, you must also fill out a state form. Here in Maryland, for example, you have to fill out a lot of paperwork for every gun you buy.
I would guess dihydrous monoxide.
Ovulation predictor kit?
Moved to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
The most dangerous thing is faith-based ideology fuelled by shame and resentment. With that, I can topple governments and set entire continents aflame. Everything else is just tools for the job.
Cueing off the Darwin Awards criterion, alcohol seems to be the best candidate. A considerable proportion of the winners were under the influence, and I could see no other single factor which recurred nearly as frequently.