> "Michael S. Lorrey" <retroman@together.net> wrote: > I get my stats off of the national accident stats.
Can you be more specific? What national accident stats, from whom, available where? I just did a search for children and guns, and came up with these stats. It looks like there are about over 200 children accidentally shot to death every year. I agree that these numbers are very low when compared to other childhood risks. I am merely pointing out that your claim of 31 children in 35 years in the U.S. is way low. It is more like 8000 children under the age of 15 have been accidentally shot to death in the U.S. in the last 35 years.
<http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/493636.html>
John R. Lott, Jr., pro-gun author of the book "More Guns, Less Crime"
says that each year 200 children 14 years of age and under are
accidentally killed by guns, but argues that this is statistically low
when comparied to other childhood risks of accidental death.
<http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/Digests/v01n001-099/v01n019>
The CDN-Firearms digest, a pro-gun publication, argues that claims that
1000 children are accidentally killed every year with guns are
exxaggerated. They state that in 1988 the number was really 277
children under the age of 15 accidentally killed with a firewarm. In
1990, the number fell to 236. For that year, 34 children were under the
age of 5, 56 children were aged 5-9, and 146 children were aged 10-14.
<http://www.tennesseefirearms.com/misc/johnlott.htm>
The Tennessee Firearms Association, a pro-gun organization, reports that
in 1996 there were 200 children under 15 accidentally shot to death.
<http://www.etext.org/Zines/Intl_Teletimes/Teletimes_HTML/deja_vu_9404.h
tml>
The Teletimes, in a pro-gun article, states that in 1990, 236 children
up to the age of 14 died as a result of firearm accidents.
<http://www.ichv.org/keeping_guns_out.htm>
U.S. Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) says at least one child a month
dies from unintentional shootings every month in his state alone.
<http://www.psr.org/child.htm>
Physicians for Social Responsibility says in 1994 alone 526 youths were
unintentionally shot to death by other minors who found guns in their
own home and were playing with them.
<http://www.vpcla.org/iherc/know.htm>
The violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles says that in
1993 there were 526 unintentional shooting deaths of children.
-- Harvey Newstrom <http://newstaffinc.com> Author, Consultant, Engineer, Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.