Originally Posted by
buckwheat
Interesting editorial opinion. The writer's opinion is partly based on this quoted statistic:
"Research shows that a backpacker on the Appalachian Trail is 190 times more likely to die in a car crash driving to the trail than actually hiking the trail."
This is what they call in the editorial opinion writing game a "straw man" argument. The fact that people don't usually die while hiking says nothing about whether the trail would be safer from crime if the criminals could be certain that some people were carrying concealed weapons.
Lots of crimes, after all, do not result in death. Rape is a good example.
The quoted statistic compares hiking deaths to automobile deaths in a meaningless way, since more people drive more miles than people hike miles. Most editorial writers are so uneducated in statistical analysis that they really can't spot a red herring of this sort, so they fall for it.
It says something about them.