re: Does living in a free society mean living with a certain degree of risk?

No doubt about it. It does

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Does living in a free society mean living with a certain degree of risk?

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...and responsibility. Yes.

A free society means one will always be at risk from others utilizing their freedoms in an offensive or harmful manor.

An unfree society means one will always be at risk from the government utilizing its freedoms in an offensive or harmful manor.

The only question is "which shoes do you want kicking you?". I prefer the free society because it permits me to "kick" back.

In the end, the only group made more safe when we bargain our essential liberties in the name of security is our government. Criminals who do not follow laws now, won't follow the new laws either. The government, too incompetent and corrupt to enforce their laws effectively at present, will still be too incompetent and corrupt to enforce any new laws. Those who wish us harm in the name of their ideology will still find ways to sidestep that incompetent, corrupt, enforcement mechanism and do us harm, no matter how many freedoms we surrender. When seconds count, the police are minutes away.

The only answer is freedom. The free man makes his own security. A single wolf can ravage an entire herd of sheep if they lack competent shepherds, but a pride of lions needs no shepherd to defend itself. We were once a nation of lions, but we have been shamed and conditioned into trading in our claws and teeth for the trustworthy shepherd's protection. We have traded our open Savannah for a fenced-in pen. We have gone from being the feared, independent, predator to the chattel livestock, willfully ignorant that the shepherd has any other motivations beyond our protection.

No doubt