I'm not afraid of terrorism, are you?

[henryp]

What if they pulled a gun?
--They don't.

Not "That's rare."

That's the problem with pointless hyperbole.

Is there a qaulitative difference, in the context of risk, between "they don't" and "it's rare"?  You're arguing rhetoric over substance....but substance doesn't sway you on this issue anyway.  You don't mind that the numbers contradict your risk assessment.  You don't mind that your mis-perception is a massive category error backed up by non-seqs.

What's left but to employ rhetoric for dissonance?  I'm a pragmatist, not a saint.

Give me a number.  In the riskiest hitchhiking scenario, what's my risk of someone pulling a gun on me. Then we can argue over whether or not that's significant.