Fact: Adults included – This “statistic” includes “children” up to age 19 or 24, depending on the source. Most violent crime is committed by males ages 16-24, and this myth includes these young adults — many of whom are gang members who die during criminal activity1. Incidentally, a ‘child’ is defined as a person between [...]
Posts under ‘Children and Guns’
Myth: Guns in America spark youth violence
Fact: Non-firearm juvenile violent crime rate in the U.S. is twice that of 25 other industrialized western nations. The non-firearm infant-homicide rate in the U.S. is 3.5 times higher.1 Thus we have a violence problem – not a “gun” problem.
Fact: Non-firearm related homicides of children out-rank firearm related homicides by children almost 5-to-12
This is an [...]
Myth: Children should be kept away from guns for their own safety
Fact: 0% of children that get guns from their parents commit gun-related crimes while 21% of those that get them illegally do.1
Fact: Children that acquire firearms illegally are twice as likely to commit street crimes (24%) than are those given a firearm by their parents (14%).2
Fact: Almost three times as many children (41%) take drugs [...]
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 [...]
Myth: Trigger locks will keep children from accidentally shooting themselves
Fact: 31 of 32 models of gun locks tested by the government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission could be opened without the key. According to their spokesperson, “We found you could open locks with paper clips, a pair of scissors or tweezers, or you could whack them on the table and they would open.”1
Fact: 85% [...]
