Fear? See, that’s exactly what I mean. Since I don’t coast blithely along without even the most minimal preparation for bad events, I must be afraid. :rolleyes: What’s your strategy (other than stand around with your thumb up your ass and a stupid look on your face) in the event of a flat tire?
When seconds count, [DEL][COLOR=“Black”]the police are[/DEL][/COLOR] AAA is just minutes away.
(And they’ll change a flat tire FOR me too!)
CMC fnord!
Well, MY strategy is to stand around looking hopeless hoping that some samaratin will pull over and give me a hand. I’m not at all handy. They can use the jack, lug wrench, and spare in my trunk.
The reason why non-fearful(:p) persons characterize your desire for “self-protection” as fear is because they perceive the downsides for packing a gun to be way worse than you do. Sort of like how you don’t walk the streets in full platemail armor because it’s too inconvenient. If a person did walk around in full plate all the time, and stated that they were doing so for protection, we would reasonably conclude that they’re very worried about attacks, to put themselves through that.
Or even just a bulletproof vest. Now, I’ve never worn a bulletproof vest, but I don’t gather they’re that inconvenient. Not like a suit of platemail anyway. So why don’t people wear them around all the time? Probably because the mild inconvenience is sufficient to deter their use because it overrides the near-nonexistent threat level the average person deals with.
To many people who are aware of the statistics, owning a gun seems very inconvenient, since guns have a nonzero chance of contributing to the sudden deaths of their owners, particularly if their owners are sometimes depressed. (I myself theorize that death would be inconvenient.) Combining that with a threat level that seems not even to justify wearing a flak jacket to the swimming pool, carrying a gun for protection seems like overkill. And if you’re carrying it specifically for protection (as opposed to for fun, to look cool, or to murder with), then that would mean that you’re misjudging the threat level. Badly.
The thing is, people assess risk in different ways. To ME, having a gun on me would be more risky from a lot of perspectives, and the probability of me having to use it is low enough that the risk doesn’t come close to the reward. After all, it’s a low probability event, and if you DO need it there is a non-zero chance that it would be ME charged with a crime, or that even having it with me wouldn’t prevent the event, or I could make it worse by hitting a bystander. All of that adds up to a higher risk than reward.
The same goes for many things we do all the time. People are bad at risk assessment is one of my (probably terribly annoying) mantras, but it’s true. But, as with other things that our society condones, it leaves it up to the individual to CHOOSE what they want to do. Do I choose to drink and drive, or not drink. Do I choose to drive while texting, or while talking on my cell phone, or not to drive at all? Do I choose to smoke, or not smoke? Do I choose to have a gun in my home for protection, or in my car for protection, or on my person for protection…or not have a gun at all? It’s up to me to make the risk analysis. I, of course, am great at risk assessment. 
Er, if you choose to drink and drive, that’s choosing to break the law, and the state will happily punish you for it if it catches you. That’s not really a good example of society “condoning” an action.
Society also weighs in on smoking in some places, texting and driving in other places, and yep, packing heat in other places. (Like courtrooms.) It’s merely a quirk of american society that people are allowed to freely misjudge risk in other places, at least regarding guns, which could in theory be changed if our congresspeople ever developed balls.
If I choose to have a gun and use it responsibly and legally, then I’m fine. If I choose to drink responsibly and legally, I’m fine. I think it’s the same thing. No, it’s not a quirk of American society…other societies allow, say, you to smoke in public places like bars or buildings or all sorts of places you can’t in the US. Same goes for drinking. Our quirks are just different than others, but most open societies allow their citizens to ‘freely misjudge risk’ and choose for themselves. They often choose…poorly. Sorry, but firearms are a lesser risk than many others that people do, not just in the US but around the world.
If you have a spare. And now the AAA response times is about 40 minutes out here.
I call the road-side assistance that my insurance offers, and sit in my car listening to the radio, smoking, and playing idle games on my phone until they show up.
Why? What do YOU do?
What would you do if a passenger in your car was having a cardiac event? Would you pull out the defibrillator you carry in your glove box? You DO have a portable defibrillator in your car, don’t you? Or would you stand around with your thumb up your ass and a stupid look on your face while your passenger died? :rolleyes:
Smoking? Ok, that explains a *lot. *
I would call 911, which comes quite a bit faster than AAA.
But in case of a flat, yes, I have a full sized spare & a jack, a first aid kid,jumper cables and yes, both a chemical fire extinguisher and a fire blanket. And I have used all of them, on several occasions. I am a volunteer S&R Ranger, and have helped many people out.
Actually I wasn’t commenting on the area, I was thinking of the people who actually get on the bus in that area. Almost all of the people on the bus are ordinary decent people; the few who aren’t REALLY aren’t. The guy babbling a nonstop monologue in a loud voice. The raucous group that eventually descends into a screaming argument with threats of violence. The guy who rocks in his seat the whole trip downtown, too wired to sit still. The bus company here is starting to install plexiglass barriers to shield the drivers- that’s a reflection of the bus drivers’ assessment of their situation.
You exist at an Eloi level of fecklessness and try to spin it as a virtue…I’ve seen some goofy shit over the years, but you are truly something new.
If I get a flat, I change the tire using the jack and the spare that come with every car from the factory (what did you do with yours? Or maybe you just don’t know where it is because lifting the carpet in the trunk is hard?) Then I drive to a tire shop to get the flat one repaired or replaced as necessary.
Likening carrying a defibrillator around to being able to use the spare and jack that fucking came with your car because flat tires are fucking common is more of your Eloi bullshit.
Seems your whole life strategy is to suck your thumb/cigarette until a competent individual shows up to do what you can’t. I think it must suck to be that infantilized, but YMMV.
A Few newer econocars are doing without a spare.