Free Republic

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,...

In the last few years the number of fatal firearm accidents has been at record lows.   In 2010 it was 606, in 2011 it was 600 (preliminary).      These numbers had been falling for a long time, then leveled off at about the 600 figure in 2005.   Of those about 10% are children ages 14 and under.  That number in 2010 was 62. To put these numbers in perspective, the number of children who drown in swimming pools and hot tubs per year is about 383 from (2006 to 2008).    From a safety perspective, swimming pools and hot tubs are...