A True Victory

The NRA's Institute for Legislative Action normally trumpets their successes on law-making matters; given the general turn against anti-gun legislation, these are less crucial than they were twenty years ago.  However, this report is not about legislation, but about an even more substantial victory:
Data recently released by the National Center for Health Statistics shows that in 2008, the number and per capita rate of firearm accident deaths fell to an all-time low. There were 592 firearm accident deaths (0.19 such accidents per 100,000 population) in 2008, as compared to 613 accidents (.20 per 100,000) in 2007. In 2008, the chance of a child dying in a firearm accident was roughly one in a million.
Firearm accidents accounted for 0.5% of all accidental deaths; well below the percentages accounted for by motor vehicle accidents, falls, fires, poisonings, and several other more common types of mishaps.
I say this is more substantial because it relies upon moving a far greater number of people.  To achieve a victory in Congress, as difficult as that can be, requires affecting the behavior of fewer than 300 people -- often far fewer, since bad bills can often be killed in committee.

To bring the rate of accidental gun deaths down to so low a level requires influencing the behavior of millions.  This required a commitment to gun safety in perhaps a hundred million households nationwide; it required discipline and education on the part of all those families.  Nevertheless, quietly, it was achieved.

7 comments:

  1. However, this report is not about legislation, but about an even more substantial victory:

    It gives the lie to the ambulance chas-- ummmm --trial lawyers' claim ( http://www.lawyershop.com/practice-areas/personal-injury/overview/firearm-accidents ) that 28,000 people die from firearm accidents each year.

    There. Fixed it for ya.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So, you think the most important thing about the story is that it proves what no one doubts? Now if we could just show that Congressmen sometimes speak in bad faith, we'd be able to close out the year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "Now if we could just show that Congressmen sometimes speak in bad faith, we'd be able to close out the year."

    Ok, compare their public pronouncements with their private acts and the public favors to their long established, personal friends/alliances.

    There. Now if I might wish our host, his family, and all about The Hall a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Festivus for the Rest of Us, Void of the Finite, etc,. etc., etc.

    And a happy new year...

    P.S. This was/is good news.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ...it proves what no one doubts?

    No one with a lick of sense doubts it. Unfortunately, a substantial portion of our population accepts that 28,000 per annum figure as Gospel, and a small, but financially-endowed, percentage of that portion pay to keep the Talking-Points sites hawking that particular Big Lie.

    And it's effective. I've heard it cited by people who *should* know better.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ymar Sakar11:19 AM

    Obama and Eric Holder obviously hadn't heard about it in time to develop their own 'fast and furious' false flag operation there.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ymar Sakar11:19 AM

    BillT, most people are tools. One must either make use of them, or get rid of them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Even if people believed the 28,000 figure, it's over a quarter lower than the deaths caused by automobile accidents. They don't advocate not driving do they? End of argument.

    It's always more satisfying to defeat someone on their own turf.

    ReplyDelete