From: jimc@oakhill.sps.mot.com (Jim Cox)
Newsgroups: ca.news,talk.politics.guns
Subject: Re: Gun control in California
Keywords: n
Date: 19 Aug 92 17:50:46 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Motorola Inc., Austin, Texas

In article <1992Aug18.212023.6184@odin.corp.sgi.com> pal@wpd.sgi.com writes:
>In article <1992Aug18.182949.2222@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>, andy@SAIL.Stanford.EDU (Andy Freeman) writes:
>
>|> How much is Pal willing to bet?  We know that even including quite a
>|> few suicides* and some covered up murders, the total is under 1,500.
>|> Given the gun ownership rates, that's in the noise.  Feel free to
>|> compare it to swimming pools, fire, accidental falls, medical
>|> "misadventure", and so on.
>
>Yes, I overstated this one.  The figure that stuck in my mind was from
>1968, when it was around 2,500 deaths and 100,000 injuries, and I
>assumed that it had risen.  The 1988 accidental death figure is indeed
>around 1,500.  I don't know how this compares to othe causes (it is
>much lower than automobile accidents).  The suicide death by firearm
>figure is around 18,000.

Here are some numbers from Philip K. Ronzone for you folks to chew on:


RKBA.001 - Accidental deaths by firearms and by other means
           Version 1.1 (last changed on 90/04/23 at 22:24:41)
         

DESCRIPTION
===========
Firearms are NOT a leading cause of accidental deaths. Accidental falls 
and drowning together kill more than TEN times the number of people 
accidently killed by firearms. The accidental death rate per capita for 
firearms has been declining steadily for over 50 years (see RKBA.002).

CONCLUSION
==========
Mandatory swimming lessons and safety in dealing with heights (ladders 
etc.) would be money better spent than mandatory firearms training.


The Y-axis increment in the table below is 2,000.


  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####
  ####      ###
  ####      ###
  ####      ###      #
  ####      ###     ###       ###    ###
  ####      ###     ###       ###    ###     ###
  ####      ###     ###       ###    ###     ###      ###     vvv
  ------------------------------------------------------------------
  48,700    11,300  5,300     4,800  4,400   3,200    1,400   1,000
  motor     falls   drowning  fires  poison  choking  guns    poison
  vehicles                           lq/sld                   gas

COPYRIGHT
=========
Copyright 1990 by Philip K. Ronzone. Permission to use any and all of the 
RKBA.nnn postings as long as this copyright is included. Excerpts for net 
postings may omit the copyright notice.

Please don't repost any RKBA.nnn posting with any changes 
unless you let me know first. I doublecheck all the information and keep 
track of the sources. Changes can cause doubt to be shed on the validity 
of the RKBA.nnn postings.

While I may state my opinions in a RKBA.nnn posting, it will clearly be 
an opinion (such as "conclusion" or "interpretation"). The facts will be facts 
however.

Otherwise, redistribute as you will.

-end-

---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Jim Cox                            Internet: jimc@bartman.sps.mot.com
Phone: (512) 891-3182          UUCP Address: cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!otis!jimc
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
Newsgroups: ca.news,talk.politics.guns