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Comment by aplummer | Hacker News Reader

Please don't strawman me, I didn't say I agree with the surveillance bill (I do not) and I don't live in Australia - my family does though.

It's a different country with a different set of tradeoffs, and is also a more free country than the United States across many important areas, which is why it rates higher in the Cato freedom index than the USA.

It comes down to perspective, to take a separate topic to prove my point - You may think their limitation to only own bolt actions and shotguns makes them less free. I may think they are more free, since they live without the fear of death in a mass shooting.

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> they live without the fear of death in a mass shooting

I live in the US without the fear of death in a mass shooting because I understand statistics.

There was a school shooting in my area a while back. There was a huge hue and cry to put uniformed police in all the schools. I (annoying person that I am) pointed out that statistically the children were much more likely to die in a traffic accident on the way to school. This did not go over well.

People regularly drown in Lake Washington, too. It doesn't even make the news. Nobody cares.

> I live in the US without the fear of death in a mass shooting because I understand statistics.

Obviously you are making the assumption I do not understand statistics, which I do. There are multiple preventable causes of death that can simultaneously be tragedies, and whataboutism does not negate from the extremely high death toll and comparative probability from gun violence in the United States.

The comparison to cars is facetious because cars have the necessary utility of moving people about around the world and are highly regulated, whereas assault rifles have by comparison miniscule utility and regulation.

I fear the sweeping new police and surveillance powers handed to the government to protect us from a statistically nonexistent threat.

The nearly 40 thousand victims (4 per 100k) of gun violence and suicide-by-firearm each year in the USA may be meaningless to you, but they are not statistically non-existent any more than their lives were statistically non-existent.

1. these are not mass shootings. You've shifted your stance from mass shootings to all gun deaths.

2. half are suicides by gun. You do not need to fear them.

3. most of the rest are concentrated in a handful of areas, like some neighborhoods in Chicago. It is indeed prudent to avoid them

4. again, you started out talking about fear of mass shootings. This is what I was addressing. Nowhere have I claimed that gun deaths are not tragedies.

> I (annoying person that I am) pointed out that statistically the children were much more likely to die in a traffic accident on the way to school. This did not go over well.

Wait until you try to bring up stats on legal vs illegal firearm crimes...

I'm glad you're opposed to the bill, but what you describe sounds to me like a mindset of "I'm free because the government (via restrictions on people) helps me feel safe". To me, that's not freedom, but dependency.

> I may think they are more free, since they live without the fear of death in a mass shooting.

Ironically, the surveillance laws were passed right after laws to disarm citizens.

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