[frozenesper]

It's precisely because we have far more control over heart disease that we do not fear it.

I can accept getting heart disease—maybe it was my fault?—much more readily that being actively, senselessly, killed by someone else. Terrorists know this too, which is why definitionally terrorism is meant to induce fear by way of its unpredictability.

You wrote "security theater" to imply that we shouldn't attempt to address terrorism and school shootings because they don't kill enough people. I think that we ought to fund research into good, effective, ways to reduce gun violence _because_ it's something that we don't control ourselves.

[manjushri]

Logically, it seems more practical to worry about things you can control, than those that you can't.

"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will."

-Epictetus

[frozenesper]

I think you're underestimating yourself.

I can control my own actions, so my worry about heart disease can inform my dietary choices.

We can control gun violence by influencing culture or changing laws, so gun control is an appropriate subject of worry.

We cannot control the sun going supernova. We shouldn't worry about that.

[manjushri]

Good point. Judging from history though, law has been quite unsuccessful at preventing the problem of murder.

[socalnate1]

This is undoubtedly true on an individual level, but not necessarily true on a societal level.

(i.e. Things I can't control as an individual, we as a society might still be able to control or influence.)