Alphecca

Accidental Gun Deaths Down

And by quite a bit! From the Missoulian:

Hard to find amid the barrage of reporting following Cheney's bad shot was any mention of the fact that accidental firearm deaths in America have actually become less common, statistically, than vice presidents shooting people.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun-industry group, this week points to new statistics showing accidental deaths involving firearms comprise less than 1 percent of accidental deaths or about 700 deaths a year nationwide in 2004, the most recent year studied. It cites a recent report from the National Safety Council, a nonprofit public service organization, showing an amazing 48 percent decline in accidental firearm-related deaths in the past decade. According to the National Safety Council, which keeps tabs on accidents in its “Injury Facts 2005-2006” publication, no other category of accidental death has declined as much in recent years.

NSSF credits safety programs like Project ChildSafe, run in cooperation with the U.S. Justice Department, involving the distribution of millions of information-filled safety kits and trigger locks; outreach programs in schools; and hunter safety programs.

The most authoritative survey of gun ownership we've seen, a 1997 report by the National Institute of Justice, estimated 44 million Americans own

192 million firearms. Another way of looking at firearm accidents is that 43,999,300 of 44 million gun owners didn't accidentally shoot anyone in 2004.

Still totaling more than 700 deaths nationally, accidental shootings remain too numerous and, of course, senselessly tragic. But, statistically, Americans have a 1 in 23 chance of dying by one accident or another - such as falls, wrecks, choking - but a 1 in 4,888 chance of dying in a firearm accident according to the National Safety Council. That's about the same chance of dying in a fall from bed, a chair or other furniture (1 in 4,745) and nearly one-eighth the odds of being killed by a vehicle while walking (1 in 612).