NEWTOWN, Conn –-(Ammoland.com)- Anti-gun groups are attempting to bolster their latest push to demonize firearms by trying to equate unintentional (accidental) motor vehicle deaths with firearm-related deaths.
This apples-to-oranges comparison is absurd, as this column points out and as the latest statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and National Safety Council show, because it requires that the intentional misuse of firearms for homicide and suicide be included.
As CDC and NSC report, there were more than 35,000 deaths by unintentional injury in 2013 involving motor vehicles compared to a total of 505 (CDC’s number) among all age groups involving firearms.
In NSC’s Injury Facts 2015 report, firearms are no longer even listed among the top causes of unintentional deaths, which are led by poisoning (more than 38,000 in 2013), motor vehicles, falls, choking, drowning, fire and suffocation.
For children under 14, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of fatality, with more than 1,401 children dying by this cause in 2011. According to NSC, accidental firearm fatalities declined by 18 percent from 2004 to 2013.
Among all these statistics, here is one to keep handy: Firearms are involved in only 0.4 percent of all unintentional fatalities.
About NSSFThe National Shooting Sports Foundation is the trade association for the firearms industry. Its mission is to promote, protect and preserve hunting and the shooting sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has a membership of more than 6,000 manufacturers, distributors, firearms retailers, shooting ranges, sportsmen’s organizations and publishers. For more information, log on to www.nssf.org.
We need to Ban Gravity Now, for the children.