Myth: If it saves the life of one child, it is worth it

Fact: Firearms in private hands are used an estimated 2.5 million times (or 6,849 times each day) each year to prevent crime;¹ this includes rapes, aggravated assaults, and kidnapping. The number of innocent children protected by firearm owning parents far outweighs the number of children harmed.

Fact: Most Americans (firearm owners or not) believe that the way parents raise kids is what causes gun violence (or just violence in general). Among non-firearm owners, 38% said it was parental neglect that causes youth violence, while only 28% thought it was due to the availability of guns.² They may be right as most homicides of children under age five are by their own parents. Of homicides among children ages 5 and younger: 31% were killed by their own mother and another 31% were killed by their own fathers.³

This is an excerpt from “Gun Facts” by Guy Smith, available free from http://www.gunfacts.info