No. "Static typing" means that the runtime type is known at compile time, and it was known: it was presented as being either a valid object or nil. The behavi

No. "Static typing" means that the runtime type is known at compile time, and it was known: it was presented as being either a valid object or nil. The behavior was consistent with the two possibilities that were "promised" by the compiler. When your program overrides with "!", you are disabling the language's protections. You really can't blame the type system for failing to complain about something that you told it not to check!