You know, thinking of all the DIY guys who buy the tools they do, I have always wondered why they don't take classes on how to properly use tools. I have seen a lot of really bad accidents on the jobsites over the years, but rarely see any as bad as the ones that hobby guys get themselves into. I think back to some of the posts here from the guys that take issue with guards, blade stopping devices, etc., and how they feel like "being careful" and being a "serious woodworker" is enough. They easily dismiss and make snide remarks about some injuries.
I think the reason my friend that is an ER nurse sees more homeowner/serious woodworkers (by her estimates 20 to 1) over construction trades that do their jobs all day, every day, eight hours a day is the over confidence that the home guy gets. Make a couple of birdhouses, then a coffee table, watch some Norm, then makes some shelves, put a few months into a storage room, read a Time Life book, and make some new cabinets for the bathroom and the confidence is really high. Missplaced, but high. I know that not all are that way, but in my almost daily contact to sell my remodel/repair services to the public I see an awful lot of it. Sometimes in an effor to impress, or to put me on notice that they aren't dealing with a neophyte, clients will actually be using their tools when I come over for an estimate. I guess in their mind this sets some kind of boundary. Then I really get to see some bad techniques, techniques that have become habits. And bad habits are something that can be gotten away with for some time (kinda like smoking), but in the end they will get you.
My commercial rep at HD and I have often wondered how long it will take a crop of bored lawyers to sue HD or anyone else for selling a tools that are as dangerous as table saws, band saws, planers, circular saws, etc., without having to take some kind of safety class. He has shown me some of the tools that come back from home guys; bent blades in miter saws, horribly broken blades in band saws, and month old table saws that look 20 years old. If that is you public, think how many accidents there must be over the years that no one knows about. And when we think about it and he gets through deriding and abusing a customer that got hurt using an HD tool we always ask, "why didn't someone stop that guy from buying that?" Why did someone let their accountant or IT guy buy a table saw without including a safety class? I dunno... after seeing so many wounded home guys I think about those things. I have come to appreciate 10 fingers and ten toes a lot more over the last few years. Over 30 years on the job and I still have 'em.
Robert