You’re 8 Times More Likely to be Killed by a Police Officer than by Furniture

I can’t say that I figured this out directly but after reading this story on Hacker News that claims you’re 8 times more likely to be killed by a cop than a terrorist, I decide to investigate a little further.

After a little browsing on the Internet I stumbled upon this Atlantic article that claims you’re just as likely to be killed by your furniture as by a terrorist.

Since you have an equal chance of being killed by a terrorist as by your furniture, you can substitute one for the other and conclude that you’re 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than your furniture. This conclusion probably won’t lead to another heated debated on Hacker News but it should make you question anyone throwing out statistics to make a point.