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Comment by showsover | Hacker News Reader

The one before that was in 2008, so a good 16 years between the two. I.e. not something people ever have to think about.

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All "active shootings" (mostly not school shootings) in the US kill only about twice as many people per year as lightning strikes. Pretty sure not many people think about those.

There's not really anything that can be done about lightning strikes.

There is, it's just that we've been doing it for so long that it's gone from being a decorative motif to a boring and ugly background feature of the architecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_rod

The metal shell of most vehicles also protect the occupants from lightning strikes.

Sure but most people end up getting killed when walking/hiking across golf courses and fields and things in storms.

Nothing to be done about the lighting strikes that kill people - exposed, in nature, doing stupid shit during storms.

Not about those in cities averted by lighting rods.

A lightning protection system only protects the building and the equipment attached to it. I suppose you could make an argument that it protects occupants from fires caused by lightning strikes, but it’s there to protect the building and equipment first and foremost.

Fun fact: lightning rods are called air terminals.

It's wild that mass murder is just treated like weather over there. Occasional rain of lead.

Fewer victims than earthquakes too.

No sane society would be comforted by the fact an active mass murdering act is "just twice as bad" as some natural phenomenon.

Comforted? No. Not allowing to be duped into anxiety and kneejerks - hopefully yes.

There's always a rental truck or a ton of fertilizer for the Cains of today.

Compared to the rate of defensive gun use appears to be worthwhile.

"Rate of defensive gun use" is also a social red flag, whether that includes actually firing the weapon or not.

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