Is there an increased risk?
How many kids, worldwide, have been spooked by clowns in this whole fad?
Dozens?
How many injured?
Any?
Worldwide doesn't matter- the only thing that matters is if it is a confirmed problem in *his* neighborhood.
Totally true but at the same time, I think some statistical analysis is warranted. If the entire world put together isn't registering more than a handful of actual injuries - and I'm not even sure if a handful have occurred - then unless they've all happened two blocks from you, you could probably focus on other threats.
I'm as pro-self defense as it gets but you have to be realistic about your threat level. And by fixating on weird clown fads, I think people are more likely to overlook legitimate threats.
Although I do love seeing some of the same people I've seen in the past explaining how virtually nobody in the western world has been killed by terrorists, now talking about how we should worry about clown-related incidents even though the numbers are even more absurd.
But yeah, unless you're Georges St-Pierre...my neighbourhood may not be the best place to clown up and look for trouble. I don't carry a handgun in Canada but that wouldn't change the odds much for most people. Although again I have no problem running from trouble if I think it's going to resolve a situation more simply. If I get in what people in my scene call a FUT - a fucked up tangle - with some dude, then no matter how it turns out, the odds of me being hurt go way up, and the odds of me getting charged with assault might increase depending on how it looks to whoever shows up. Working in the arms industry I can't really afford to get charged with a violent crime because my ability to own guns would potentially be suspended, and A) that means my job is going to get really complicated, and B) they'll be hauling tens of thousands of dollars of my stuff out of here and leaving it in an evidence locker somewhere for god knows how long. And then calling around to manufacturers and explaining why I can't return something...or I can't finish a project for some unknown amount of time...or I don't even know where their prototype is...
Yeah, that'd suck. So I would really have to feel backed into a corner, not specifically with clowns, but with anyone. Which, by coincidence, I very much thought was happening a couple of weeks ago with some dirtbag gangsters in a brand new Cadillac. But they didn't end up brandishing guns and so on I went.
Anyway I don't have criticism for anyone who wants to be prepared to defend themselves against any threat at all...I just question the prioritization I often see, in which people seem to feel their kids are at risk from random kidnappings and serial killers more than diabetes and the family dog, and they spend more time on the computer eating doritos and planning a response to terror attacks than time in the outdoors preventing heart attacks.
I'll totally headbutt a clown into next year if that's necessary...I just think it's more realistic for me to devote the energy to non-clown-specific concerns.
