THE WRITER'S GUIDE TO FIREARMS AND AMMUNITION

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Section 3 – Statistical Data Regarding
Gun Homicides, Suicides and Accidents

Depending on the source, firearms are portrayed as tools of destruction that are responsible for over 35,000 deaths per year, or they are legitimate products primarily used safely by millions of responsible citizens. Let's look beyond the rhetoric. Who's right? Are guns inherently unsafe? How can various groups look at objective data and make vastly different claims about the safety of firearms?

One popular argument claims that a firearm in the home is an accident waiting to happen – but what is the reality? According to the National Safety Council's Injury Facts, accidental firearm fatalities in the home numbered 500 for 2005. This accounts for 1% of all accidental fatalities in the home. (Source: National Safety Council, Injury Facts Report, 2007 Edition)

Compared with the leading causes of unintentional home fatalities, you can see in Figure 1 that firearms rank near the bottom.

So, what is the truth? Where are the 35,000 victims of firearms? According to the National Safety Council, "firearm-related deaths from intentional and undetermined causes totaled 30,136 in 2003, a decrease of less than 0.5% from 2002. Suicides accounted for 56.1% of firearms deaths, 39.6% were homicides, and about 2.4% were unintentional deaths."

In other words, 95.7% of all fatalities involving firearms are either homicides or suicides. Intentional misuse of a product should not be used as a yardstick for that product's safety or utility. However, anti-gun activists regularly include homicide and suicide statistics in order to inflate the numbers and make firearm deaths an "epidemic" or "public health issue." Deliberate or criminal misuse is quite different from an accident. See the chart below for trends in homicides, suicides and unintentional fatalities.

While firearm ownership has more than doubled over the last 30 years, the number of accidental firearms fatalities has been reduced by more than 70 percent. If there were truth to the allegation that guns in the home are unsafe, we would expect to see a correlative rise between the number of guns in private hands and the number of accidental firearm fatalities. Thanks in large part to industry-sponsored education efforts and the responsibility of gun owners, that correlation does not exist.

Curious youngsters and teenagers are most likely to have an accident with firearms. That is why the firearms industry encourages gun owners to lock up their guns securely. Numerous products, ranging from trigger locks to gun safes, can help prevent an accident. Circumstances may dictate how one stores firearms, but whatever steps are taken, they must be effective.

The firearms industry shares with all Americans a deep concern about the scourge of violence in our nation. However, we do not believe that imposing responsibility for illegal acts on those who lawfully and responsibly manufacture firearms will deter criminals from engaging in criminal acts.

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