Accidental Firearms Fatalities Drop 17 Percent

The National Safety Council has released a new report that reveals a 17% drop in accidental shooting deaths.

The Council, chartered by Congress in 1953, released their 2017 Injury Facts edition which found that, while deaths due to prescription drug abuse continue to rise, those from accidental gunshots continue to fall. As noted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the number of deaths due to fatal firearm accidents fell some 17 percent between 2014 and 2015, the lowest since record keeping began.

Safety programs aimed at curbing gun accidents have been on the rise over the past several generations.

“This latest release from the National Safety Council shows that the vast majority of the 100 million American firearms owners meet the serious responsibilities which come with firearms ownership,” said NSSF President and CEO Steve Sanetti. “They store their firearms safely and securely when not in use, and follow the basic rules of firearms safety when handling them.”

This is good news and you won’t hear about it from the anti-Second Amendment community, which claims to want to reduce senseless gun violence but is notably silent when studies reveal precisely that.

Instead, the mainstream media and anti-gun crowd are focusing on a new study today from the American Journal of Public Health which estimated gunshot injuries have cost the U.S. $6B+ over the span of 8 years.

ABC News reports: “Every year, the cost for treating people with gunshots wounds reaches approximately $734 million in initial hospital costs, racking up more than $6.6 billion between 2006 and 2014.”

In actuality, that might have more to do with the bloated costs associated with government-regulated health care than anything else.

The study also shows that the tab for 40 percent of the “initial hospitalization” for firearms injuries is picked up by the government. “The responsibility for payment falls primarily on government payers and the uninsured,” the authors wrote.

And just to solidify there is a political agenda that includes not only firearms but healthcare coverage,  ABC News tell the reader, “The study authors said more research is needed to fully understand the comprehensive costs of firearm injuries. This data was intended to help policy makers allocate funds appropriately to the trauma and treatment centers that care for these patients.”

Exactly.