Free Republic

While recent headlines might lead you to believe that accidental deaths from firearms are at an all-time high, the fact is they are at their lowest in decades — but unfortunately, the so-called “mainstream” media won’t report the truth. As noted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation in a blog post on the group’s website, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is claiming that gun-related deaths in 2017 reached their highest level in the U.S. in 40 years. As reported by Fox News: In 2017, nearly 40,000 people were killed from gun-related incidents in the U.S., according to the...

In 2015, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) made an error in the number of fatal firearms accidents that occurred in 2014. It was so large, it was obvious. The number of fatal firearm accidents had been falling significantly. In 2014, they suddenly and inexplicably jumped by over 25%. Most of the increase was in one state, Tennessee. Dr. John Lott noticed the error in January of 2016, and brought it to the attention of the CDC. From crimeresearch.org: In January 2016, Dr. John Lott contacted the CDC to alert them to a mistake in their numbers for 2014...

A recent study from Wellesley College economists, published in Science magazine  is a good example of how to torture data until you get the result you want.The mass murder at Sandy Hook took place on December 14, 2012. President Obama spoke of the need for more gun control on 19 December.  He talked about specific restrictions on 16 January, 2013.The events are so close to the end of the year, that an increase in accidental deaths should show in the annual data.WISQARS CDC data baseThe article in Science makes the following claim.From sciencemag.org: About 60 additional unintended shooting deaths,...

The graphic is from the National Shooting Sports Foundation.   Accidental firearm fatalities are at an all time low in the United States.  The pure numbers do not give the best comparison.  You need to look at the rates, or accidental firearm fatalities per 100,000 population to see the stunning reduction in the last century.   The accidental fatal firearm rate has dropped by 94% since we started keeping statistics, even though the total number of firearms per capita has likely at least doubled.  That number is harder to pin down, but firearms have become more affordable with the industrial revolution,...

Which are more dangerous for young children, five gallon buckets or guns?  Five gallon buckets result in a small number of fatal accidents for young children; about 27 a year.   The accidents are not tracked as rigorously as those with firearms are.  I found a study that tracked them for six years.  From a pediatrics study:   Analysis of Consumer Product Safety Commission data revealed 160 bucket-related drownings for the years 1984 through 1989, representing a mortality rate of 0.367 per 100 000 persons (younger than 2 years old) per year in the United States. I have not found numbers...

Someone came by searching for “TOO MANY PEOPLE DIE FROM GUNS ACCIDENT.”Accidental Firearms Death Rate If the annual total were one, that would be one too many. None the less, Americans are making remarkable progress at reducing the number of gun accidents. You can click on the chart on the left for a clearer view. You will see that 112 years ago, the fatal firearms accident rate was 3.6 per 100,000 population, three times the homicide rate. In 1904, the fatal accident rate was 3.4 per 100,000. A gun safety drive by a number of State Rifle and Pistol Clubs...