A while back a friend of mine wrote a thought-provoking article on playing the odds. The essence of the article is that most people don’t think twice about preventing residential fires, but the debate changes entirely when it comes to firearms ownership. There is no stigma attached with buying fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, and emergency lights to deal with fires. Nor should there be, after all household fires still happen regularly.

Yet when you tell people that you have purchased a firearm to protect your home, some react with surprise or even horror. Some states like New York have recently made it more difficult for law-abiding citizens to purchase firearms for self-defense. When you look at the numbers, you will see that it makes sense to prepare for both.

Residential Fires

Last year, over 350,000 residential fires occurred in the USA. This caused 2,600 deaths and just under 13,000 injuries along with over $7 billion in damage. Over half of these fires were caused by cooking! Making preparations to deal with fire and taking precautions to prevent them is certainly prudent. The relatively low cost of fire prevention makes a lot of sense.

Crime Committed with a Firearm

In 2011, over 400,000 crimes were committed by a firearm in the USA. This caused just over 11,000 deaths, over half of whom were young black males. While these crimes have steadily decreased over the past twenty years, they still happen more frequently than residential fires. Perhaps that is a reason why many people are purchasing firearms and learning how to use them for self-protection. As the statistics show, this makes a lot of sense.

The takeaway from all this is to prepare for likely events and not focus on doomsday. There is a much higher probability of experiencing a household fire in the next year than the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupting and wiping out most of North America. So plan for commonplace events rather than rare phenomena or events. This will be the most effective use of your time and treasure, allowing you to practice common sense preparedness with the resources you have available now.