Snakes are a trip. I've been around a few of them. My roommate in Arizona acquired a 3' king snake that a postman found in his USPS truck in Paradise Valley back in 1978. We kept it in an aquarium in our dining room. It would always get out (snakes are escape artists), and if I came near it, it would coil up and hiss. By contrast, my roommate just walked over to it, picked it up, and placed it back in the cage with no drama. It was truly weird watching him put a live mouse in the cage and to see the snake do what snakes do. When we had parties, my roommate would take the snake out and let everyone touch it. Show and tell time! I didn't mind it crawing over my legs while seated on the couch if my friend was right there, yet I remained motionless so that the snake would not feel threatened. I know that it couldn't hurt me if it struck, but it still creeped me out. Several months later after much coaxing from me, we released the snake in Buckeye, AZ where the desert meets the farmlands on a road trip to San Diego. It had grown in the few months that it lived with us and would ultimately reach a length of 5'. We knew that the snake would have a good life there with plenty of food supply.
That same former roommate lives on a 5 acre desert parcel in Apache Junction near the foothills of Red Mountain with his wife and 2 kids. He has caught rattlers several times right near his house that were a threat to his pets and kids. His gold lab got bit and survived; his cat was not so lucky. One time while I was visiting in the early 2000s, he caught a western coral snake by his back French kitchen doors. He put it in an empty garlic container and froze it. The venom of a coral snake is twice as poisonous as a rattler's venom. The snake was tiny compared to a rattler, and it would have been easy to not see it. He has taught his kids to always look at their surroundings while playing outside, but how often do they get caught up in having fun and miss the obvious? So far, no problems.
I've encountered numerous rattlesnakes in the wild, both in Arizona and here in San Diego County. If you keep your distance, they'll leave you alone. Still, I respect their space and know what they can do. The last one I saw was a 5' rattler in San Clemente Canyon (right near 2 busy freeways I-5 and Highway 52). 4 of us were mountain biking in the heavily wooded canyon, and the snake was resting in the middle of a dirt road. One of the guys took a dried branch and touched the snake's tail. Nothing. He did it again, and I'll never forget the sound of the loud rattling as the snake took off. Snakes can move more quickly than I would have imagined, so never mess with one if you're not a fast runner. The next time that I needed tires for my mountain bike, I bought hybrid tires knowing that my trail riding days were over. I'm strictly a road bike guy now.