Posted by Phil Lee (216.250.238.24) on September 22, 2001 at 21:28:
The gun-grabbers tend to ignore trends in accidental gun deaths with good reason. In the 25 years from 1968 to 1992, American gun ownership increased almost 135 percent (from 97 million guns to 222 million), with handgun ownership rising more than 300 percent. These huge increases coincided with a two-thirds decline in accidental gun fatalities. The Million Moms -- Brady Bunch -- Violence Policy Center -- ASK crowd and the researchers they fund do not like to talk about this dramatic development, since it flies in the face of the assumption that more guns mean more deaths.
They are especially reluctant to acknowledge the drop in accidental gun deaths because of the two most plausible explanations for it: the replacement of rifles and shotguns with the much safer handgun as the main weapon kept loaded for self-defense, and the NRA's impressive efforts in gun safety training.
Why are handguns safer? There are two reasons -- they have been designed with added safety features that are not normally found on rifles and shotguns because handgun designs have been changing every few years and rifle and shotgun designs have tended to be more static. Also, handguns are not so powerful as rifles or shotguns and the wounds are less life threatening (i.e. handguns are inherently safer than long guns for personal defense).
The gun-grabbers cannot admit any good done by the NRA, so they do not want to credit that organizations significant effort with safety training. But training works and accidental firearm deaths are down significantly even where more dangerous long guns are used such as hunting.