Gun Accidents in the Home
Firearms can be used in a positive setting, such as target shooting, hunting, self-defense, or recreation. On the other hand, a fatal gun accident often makes the front page of a newspaper and even the state and national news, especially when a child is involved. In most cases, children between the ages of zero to nineteen die due to an accidental gun shooting. Late teens who have committed suicide are the largest group of people who suffer from death of a firearm. In 2003, 7,671 suicides were firearm related. That is almost half of all the suicides firearm related that year.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that in 1997, 2,514 children aged zero to fourteen were non-fatally injured by guns. In the same year, 30,225 people aged fifteen to twenty-four suffered from non fatal firearm injuries. This includes suicide attempts, intentional, and accidental shootings. The rate of firearm deaths among children under the age of fifteen is almost twelve times higher in the United States than in twenty-five other industrialized countries combined. American kids are eleven times more likely to commit suicide with a gun, sixteen times more likely to be murdered with a gun, and nine times more likely to die in a gun accident then kids in these other twenty-five countries. There is said to be 1.2 million kids who return home from school every afternoon without a parent present and with an unsecured gun.
There is a figure that determines forty percent of households with children under the age of nineteen report having at least one gun in their home. Twenty-five percent of those firearms are stored loaded and unlocked. Statistics use a figure of nine deaths a day, which is equivalent to almost 3,300 accidental gun deaths a year involving children. “While many people were grateful of the overall decrease in gun deaths among children and teens”, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, president of the non-political gun safety and gun violence prevention organization
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that in 1997, 2,514 children aged zero to fourteen were non-fatally injured by guns. In the same year, 30,225 people aged fifteen to twenty-four suffered from non fatal firearm injuries. This includes suicide attempts, intentional, and accidental shootings. The rate of firearm deaths among children under the age of fifteen is almost twelve times higher in the United States than in twenty-five other industrialized countries combined. American kids are eleven times more likely to commit suicide with a gun, sixteen times more likely to be murdered with a gun, and nine times more likely to die in a gun accident then kids in these other twenty-five countries. There is said to be 1.2 million kids who return home from school every afternoon without a parent present and with an unsecured gun.
There is a figure that determines forty percent of households with children under the age of nineteen report having at least one gun in their home. Twenty-five percent of those firearms are stored loaded and unlocked. Statistics use a figure of nine deaths a day, which is equivalent to almost 3,300 accidental gun deaths a year involving children. “While many people were grateful of the overall decrease in gun deaths among children and teens”, Victoria Reggie Kennedy, president of the non-political gun safety and gun violence prevention organization