ABSTRACT
The significance of accidents therefore is not due to their dominance in the firearms death statistics. Most defensive gun owners do not perceive themselves as prone to crime or suicide, so it is difficult to persuade them that such risks apply to them. The accidental death rate for motor vehicles is 15 times as high as for guns when based on the number of owning households, and 29 times as high when based on numbers of devices in existence. The low frequency with which gun owners shoot their guns, and thereby expose themselves and others to risk, probably is largely responsible for these relatively low injury frequencies. The explanation of recent trends may instead involve shifts in the types of guns owned and, more importantly, the types routinely kept loaded. Advocates of stricter gun control often lay special stress on the risks of gun accidents to children.
