Don’t forget swimming pools and kids.Discussed in this article.
The total accidental deaths of children (unintended deaths) from 1999 to 2017 were 135,259. Fatal firearms accidents were 1.47 percent of the total. Many other circumstances accounted for much higher numbers of unintentional deaths than those occurring with firearms. Here are numbers from the CDC database for the same period, 1999-2017, for children aged 0 – 17.
- Occupants of motor vehicles 27,189
- Unknown situations, motor vehicles 24,201
- Suffocation 21,008
- Drowning 17,270
- Pedestrians and motor vehicles 12,098
- Fire/burning (non-residential) 7,982
- Fire, residential 7,237
- Poisoning 5,166
- Other land transportation 3,489
- Bicycles (pedal cycles) 2,467
- Falls 2,118
- Firearms 1,994
- Natural/Environmental 1,797
Fatal accidents involving firearms and children are low and have been trending downward for a long time, even as the number of firearms, both absolute and per capita, have increased enormously.