ABSTRACT
Defects in the design or manufacture of firearms rarely cause gun accidents. The image of a small child finding his parents' gun and killing himself or a playmate is an emotionally powerful one. Advocates of stricter gun control often lay special stress on the risks of gun accidents to children. National mortality data indicate that most of the victims of fatal gun accidents live in rural areas or small towns, consistent with the fact that gun ownership increases as size of place decreases. Shooters and victims in gun accidents tend to resemble each other demographically, being nearly always the same in race and usually similar in age. Hunting accidents seem to be a different sort of event from home gun accidents, involving much less clear evidence of reckless behavior. The risk of a gun accident is extremely low, even among defensive gun owners, except among a very small, identifiably high-risk subset of the population.
