"Joe Bemier" wrote in message

Well, over 30 years of nearly daily use and I have not as much as a
nick -honest. I think that might be the issue. Maybe some of you guys
are very intimidated by a TS and thus the feeling you need this
device. And, that is why it should be a consumer option and not a gov
mandate. For my part, I respect the machine and understand how to
reduce my risk to only a freak accident...something in the statistical
neighborhood of a clear sky lightning strike.

And that's exactly the type of attitude that will bite you in the butt one
day, that it's unlikely you might have an accident. Would you say there's
quite a few experienced woodworkers on this newsgroup?. Sure most of them
might still have all their fingers, but I wonder how many would admit to
experiencing a kick back, either small or large? I admit to it and I'm
certainly not accident prone.

A warped piece of wood, one that has an unseen split in it and there you go,
a kick back whizzing by your head. That's an accident. How many people are
using contactor saws with a motor hanging out the back of it driven by a
pulley? A falling piece of wood into that spinning rubber pulley and a piece
of wood gets whipped into a wall somewhere. How many might admit to that?
Have you ever once removed your splitter and blade guard to cut a piece of
wood? Automatically, you're open to some type of accident. It's fine that
you're very careful, but it's just not humanely possible to take everything
into account every time. To say otherwise is completely unrealistic.
Considering the huge amount of tablesaws out there, even a small percentage
of injuries adds up to a large amount when you tally them all. It's only
common sense to minimize that amount.