Kids and guns

July 20, 2008 by
Filed under: Newbie Info, Safety 

The recent foolishness involving kids and guns has got me thinking about kids and guns.

I’m the dad of a young girl.  A curious young girl.  A smart young girl.  How can I keep her safe?  As a shooter, how do you make sure your youngsters don’t get access to your firearms?

First things, first.  Despite what you may have heard, a firearm in the home is not, truthfully, all that deadly. It is dangerous, to be sure.  But, a bottle of bleach is dangerous.  A can of gasoline is dangerous.  And, in fact both of those things are probably more dangerous then a firearm.

One of the cool things about the internet is that you can look up data directly.  Let us consider the CDC data on causes of accidental death for children 1-14 for the year 2005.  4,079 children died accidentally in 2005.  Motor vehicle accidents top the list at 1,812 deaths.  Drowning comes next at 746 deaths.  Then fire, then suffocation, then pedestrian accidents,  “other land transport”, and “natural/environmental” until we finally come to firearms at 58 deaths in 2005.  To put it another way, your child is more likely to die from influenza and pneumonia (216), septicemia (166), or heart disease (403) then they are to be accidentally killed by a firearm.

I don’t mean to suggest that firearms are not something to be concerend about, or that they are not dangerous.  They can be, if treated carelessly.  But, in truth, they are no more dangerous then any other deadly thing in your home, be it car, swimming pool, or poison.

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