13 Things That Are Much Bigger Threats To America Than "Refugee Terrorists"
Cows, for one.
The Cato Institute has published a study that determines the likelihood of being killed by foreign-born terrorists.
As you can see, there have been only three deaths in the US in the last 40 years attributed to terrorists who entered country as refugees. That's an average of 0.075 deaths per year, or a 1 in (roughly) 3.6 billion chance.
As the study's author Alex Nowrasteh notes, these three deaths happened when Cuban refugees carried out an attack in the 1970s.
The Refugee Act of 1980 strengthened refugee vetting, and not a single terrorism-related death since has been linked to refugees.
So here's a short list of things that are more likely to kill you than a refugee if you live in the United States:
1. Cows
According to the CDC, cows caused at least 108 deaths just between 2003–2007. That's about 21 deaths per year, roughly 288 times more than refugees.
2. Stairs
According to the National Safety Council, injuries sustained from falling down stairs accounted for 1,307 deaths in the year 2000. That's a 1 in 2,739 chance over one's lifetime.
3. Hot tap water
According to the Journal of Burn Care and Research, an average of 100 people die each year from burns caused by hot tap water.
4. Dogs
The CDC found that 279 people died from dog bites between 1979 and 1994, which comes out to an average of about 18 people per year.
5. Vending machines
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, vending machines caused 37 deaths over a 17-year span. That's an average of only about two deaths per year, but it's still nearly 30 times more likely than dying at the hands of a "refugee terrorist."
6. Bees
Roughly 100 people die every year due to bee stings, according to the CDC.
7. Cell phones
An average of eight people die per DAY due to traffic accidents as a result of texting a driving. That's 2,920 people per year.
8. Swing sets
Swing sets cause an average of 20 deaths annually in the U.S., according to the CPSC.
9. Wind
There were 76 wind-related deaths in 2011, and 104 in 2012.
10. Football
In 2014, there were 16 deaths (six direct, the rest indirect) related to high school and college football, according to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research. Over a 20-year period from 1990 to 2010, a total of 243 football-related deaths were recorded.
11. Roller coasters
According to data from the National Institute of Health, an average of four people die every year due to injuries caused by roller coasters.
12. Lawnmowers
The CDC reports a total of 951 lawnmower-related deaths between 1999 and 2014, or roughly 63 per year.
13. Your bed
NSC statistics show that 357 people died from accidental suffocation or strangulation in bed in the year 2000. So not only is that way, way more than the average of 0.075 deaths per year caused by refugees, but it also means you're actually four times more likely to be suffocated by your own bed than to be killed by a foreign-born terrorist of ANY kind.