Archroy said:
As to the issue of whether you are more at risk if there is a gun in your house, the following links have interesting information, particularly regarding children and firearms.
Not again. You have posted on several topics where I went over this. Here we go again-
The person who handled that survey was not a criminologist or a sociologist but was instead a biologist. His methods were perfectly appropriate for studying bacterial cultures but NOT human behavior.
He did not take time into account. Why is that important?
Because most suicides with guns are either within the first few months of purchase (implying that the gun was bought with the intention of committing suicide)
How do you know this?
or the gun has been present for generations (given enough time every family will have someone commit suicide).
Again, how do you know? I personally only knew one person who killed themself. One per family, eventually, seems like an awful lot.
Also in terms of murder if the gun was bought in immediately then the purpose might have been murder
Yes it might, or it might not. It might be that they wanted what some people call a useful, nay
necessary tool; or they were exercising their constitutional rights and all that. Maybe they just liked to look at the thing.
OR the firearm might have been bought for the purpose of protection from a perceived threat that just happened to materialize.
It seems to me that many gun owners
do buy them for protection from a possible future threat that
sometimes materializes. So what? They still bought the thing.
Also he did not even take into account WHETHER OR NOT THE GUN IN THE HOME WAS EVEN USED. Seriously, if a burglar just broke in and killed the gun owner in his/her sleep and the victims gun was never used it still counted.
I don't know about this, as I haven't read the survey. Someone earlier in the thread made mention of the subject and I had a quick google and those links were what I found. They focus on the issue of children living in households with guns.
From this link:
http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/guns.htm
"According to the CDC, the rate of firearm deaths among children under age 15 is almost 12 times higher in the United States than in 25 other industrialized countries combined. American children are 16 times more likely to be murdered with a gun, 11 times more likely to commit suicide with a gun, and nine times more likely to die in a firearm accident than children in these other countries."
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rates of homicide, suicide, and firearm-related deaths among children in 26 industrialized countries. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1997; 46 101 ?105
"What are the risks for teens?
Parents of teenagers are less likely to store firearms safely [7]. This is a big concern, since most firearm injuries happen to teens. Teens are at greater risk of attempting suicide, and a suicide attempt with a gun is likely to be deadly. More than 90% of suicide attempts with a gun are deadly, and teens in homes with firearms are at higher risk for committing suicide [8]."
[7] Johnson RM, Miller M, Vriniotis M, Azrael D, Hemenway D. Are household firearms stored less safely in homes with adolescents?: Analysis of a national random sample of parents. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2006 Aug;160(8):7
[8] Committee on Adolescents. American Academy of Pediatrics. Pediatrics. Suicide and suicide attempts in adolescents. 2000 Apr;105(4 Pt 1):871-4.
From here:
http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB4535/index1.html
We read:
"The data show that many firearms in homes with children are dangerously accessible. In 9 percent of homes with children and firearms, at least one firearm is stored unlocked and loaded, and in another 4 percent at least one firearm is unlocked, unloaded, and stored with ammunition. This means that in about 13 percent of homes with children and firearms--about 2.6 million children in 1.4 million homes--firearms are stored in a way that makes them most accessible to children. Overall, fewer than half of the U.S. families with firearms and children store firearms locked (either in a locked place or secured with a trigger lock) and separate from ammunition. "
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/107/6/1247.abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11943968?dopt=Abstract
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/111/2/e109.full
Tl;dr: people think that
their bundle of joy is special and would never play with a gun if they found one. This is not the case.
"In presenting early findings from this survey to a panel of law enforcement officers, we witnessed myriad demonstrations of this "selective blindness" phenomenon, in which adults who agree in principle that guns should be stored in ways that are inaccessible to children do not see the need for caution with their own children. Gun safety is thus framed as a matter of protecting other people's children, rather than one's own. While police officers were quick to embrace the idea of teaching others of the need to properly secure their firearms, both male and female officers who had children in their homes were open in admitting that they did not?and would not, even after the presentation?secure their firearms with locks or lock boxes. The number one rationale we heard from this audience?
My kids know better. "
Bolded by me.
