For home defense, I use the law offices of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews, and Ingersoll - one of Baltimore's better law firms. Believe me, a bullet is a mercy compared to what a top notch litigator can do. About 2 years ago, I wrote an article about gun control and the aesthetics of guns. It's turned out to be fairly popular and remains one of my best pieces of editorial writing to date. People are really stupid about guns.
People are really stupid about anything technological and complicated, so it's no surprise.
Risk assessment is the process of assigning likelihoods to things that might go wrong, and comparing the likelihoods to the damage that will happen if something does go wrong. If your risk assessment indicates that the taxi is a more likely problem, you'll look both ways when you cross the street. If your risk assessment indicates that the meteorite is a more likely problem, you'll look up at the sky when you cross the street. Out where I live lots of people come out on weekends to ride bicycles for their health. This is presumably great exercise but it brings with it a chance of getting run over by a high speed vehicle, since the visibility on country roads isn't that great.