From: [b--c--r] at [csl.sri.com] (Peter K. Boucher)
Newsgroups: ca.politics,talk.politics.guns
Subject: Trends in Fatal Gun Accidents
Date: 20 Jul 1993 19:18:05 -0500

The rate of gun ownership has been steadily rising since 1933, while the
rate of gun-related accidental deaths has been steadily falling.  In light
of this information, the efforts by some groups to transform gun violence
from a criminal issue to a public-health emergency is exposed as a shallow
political ploy.

====================== Copied from Kleck's _Point_Blank_ =====================
Table 7.1.  Trends in Fatal Gun Accidents
							Rate per	Guns
							100,000		per
		Self-Inflicted[a]	Other-Inflicted	Resident	1000
Year	Total	    (%)			or Unspecified	Population	Population
-------+-------+-----------------------+---------------+---------------+----------
1933	3014						2.40		n.a.
1935	2799						2.20		n.a.
1940	2390						1.80		n.a.
1945	2454						1.84  		n.a.
1950	2174						1.43		381
1955	2120						1.28		308
1960	2334						1.30  		431
1965	2344						1.21  		462
1966	2558						1.30		476
1967	2896 (postwar peak)				1.47		492
1968	2394						1.20		513
1969	2309	568 (25)		1741		1.15		532
1970	2406	523 (22)		I883		1.18		549
1971	2360	524 (22)		1836		1.14		567
1972	2442	538 (22)		1904		1.17		588
1973	2618	516 (20)		2102		1.24		610
1974	2513	512 (20)		2001		1.18		637
1975	238O	520 (22)		1860		1.10		657
1976	2059	448 (22)		1611		0.95		678
1977	1982	450 (23)		1532		0.90		697
1978	1806	384 (21)		1422		0.81		716
1979	2004						0.89		721
1980	1955						0.86		738
1981	1871						0.82		754
1982	1757						0.76		768
1983	1695						0.72		778
1984	1668						0.71		788
1985	1649						0.69		798
1986	1452						0.59		805
1987	1440						0.57  		816
-------+-------+-----------------------+---------------+---------------+----------

[a] Gun accident deaths were separately classified as self-inflicted only while
the eighth revision of the International Classification of Diseases was in use
1969-1978.

Sources:
    Deaths -- U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (and predecessor
	      agencies), l988 and earlier; National Safety Council
	      _Accident_Facts_ (1988 p. 20).
    Population estimates -- U.S. Bureau of Census _1980_Census_of_the_
			   _Population_Volume_1_ (1983 p. 6. Guns owned --
			   Table 2.1.).