Those of us that have been paying attention know that accidents involving firearms are not only far more rare than anti-liberty fanatics claim, but the number of such accidents have been declining precipitously for the last century. We also know this is particularly remarkable, because while the accident rate has been dropping, the rate of firearm ownership has been skyrocketing, particularly during the Obama years, with a push at the end due to fears of a Hillary Clinton presidency. This may seem to some to be irrational, until one realizes Clinton actually ran on gun control and promised to work “every day” she was in office to destroy the Second Amendment. Firearms sales records were being set virtually every month, and with the election of Donald Trump, the firearm industry is experiencing something of a sales slump, however, far more people, including liberals and women, who never considered owning firearms, are now gun owners. This bodes well for the future of the Second Amendment. The Washington Examiner reports:
Despite gun sales reaching record numbers in the last two years, accidental gun shootings are at an all-time low, a surprising finding by the National Safety Council.
Surprising, perhaps to anti-liberty types, but unsurprising to law-abiding gun owners.
In its annual ‘Injury Facts’ report, the group put accidental gun deaths in 2015 at 489.
That is the lowest since 1903, when record-keeping began and a 17 percent one-year drop.
‘That’s about three-tenths of 1 percent of the 146,571 total accidental deaths from all other listed causes. The decrease came in a year that saw record firearms sales to many millions of Americans,’ according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s representative.
In other words, there were far more bicycle accidents, falls from ladders, accidents with power tools, and all manner of other accidents than accidents with firearms. Again, this is the normal state of things. The overwhelming majority of gun owners rigorously practice the basics of gun safety. Considering the sheer numbers of guns and gun owners, this safety record is remarkable indeed.
In 2015, some 23 million guns were sold, an all-time high then. Last year sales surged to 27 million.
Twenty seven million represents around 9% of the population. Obviously, some people purchased two or more firearms during that year, but 27 million is a significant number regardless.
Because human beings are involved, there will always be accidents, but this is yet another example of how the hysterical forecasts of anti-liberty fanatics not only always fail to materialize, but the opposite virtually always proves to be true.
Just another fun fact to know and tell.
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Your “actual woman enjoying shooting an AR-15” reminded me of this picture of Gabby Giffords:
http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/2016/06/a-response-to-yet-another-knee-jerk.html
So based on a population of 350 million accidental gun deaths work out to in 715746. Not a statistic I expect to hear from the occasional mom against guns anytime soon.
Reblogged this on .
This says it all – https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/04/07/employee-accidentally-shoots-hurts-self-nra-museum/100192128/