[Vision2020] Saving Children From Guns

Sat Mar 23 10:32:00 PDT 2013

The article I was responding to was talking about gun safety, so I was 
looking at gun accident statistics only.  Since the CDC is the go-to 
place for death statistics, I went there.  Unfortunately, they only have 
data through 2010, with some 2011 non-official data, but no 2011 data on 
gun accidents that I could find, let alone data from 2012 and beyond.

Paul

On 03/23/2013 10:23 AM, Tom Hansen wrote:
> Pick a source, Mr. Rumelhart.  ANY source.  They are all reporting gun 
> deaths in excess of 2,000 since Newtown.
>
> https://www.google.com/search?q=gun+deaths+since+sandy+hook&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari#q=gun+deaths+since+sandy+hook&hl=en&client=safari&ei=a-RNUeDmNYHeiALVoIGQDQ&start=20&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.&bvm=bv.44158598,d.cGE&fp=c1cc9d4856fbbb93&biw=1024&bih=644
>
> Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .
>
> "Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
> http://www.MoscowCares.com
> Tom Hansen
> Moscow, Idaho
>
> "There's room at the top they are telling you still
> But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
> If you want to be like the folks on the hill."
>
> - John Lennon
>
> On Mar 23, 2013, at 9:46 AM, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com 
> <mailto:godshatter at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>
>>
>> Gun safety is, perhaps, a place where a lot of people on this list 
>> could potentially agree on this debate (at least to some degree).  I 
>> think using RFID chips to enable guns to fire is just asking for a 
>> mis-fire or non-fire of the gun just when you need it most, though.  
>> If we want to child-proof anything, I'd suggest child-proofing gun 
>> cases. I'd like to find some incentive to ensure that people are 
>> storing their guns properly, but the only things I can think of that 
>> would help is more safety training and laws that affect the gun owner 
>> if a death occurs as a result of a firearm discharging accidentally.  
>> I'm open to suggestions.
>>
>> I took a quick look at the statistics for gun accidents, since the 
>> article only describes them as having "new examples almost every 
>> day".  According to the CDC, in 2010 (under "Nontransport 
>> accidents"), "Accidental discharge of firearms" accounted for 606 
>> deaths.  I haven't found a breakdown by child/adult, but I'll keep 
>> looking.  The only other age-related statistic I have found so far is 
>> that there were 0 infant mortality deaths due to gun accidents.
>>
>> In case you're curious, here is the number of deaths for each 
>> non-transport accident type, from the "2010 Mortality Multiple Cause 
>> Micro Data Files" PDF 
>> (http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/deaths_2010_release.pdf):
>>
>> Falls 26,009
>> Accidental discharge of firearms     606
>> Accidental drowning                3,782
>> Accidental exposure to fire        2,782
>> Accidental poisoning              33,041
>> Other unspecified                 16,678
>> Total                             82,898
>>
>> Firearm accidents are the smallest number in that list, but that 
>> doesn't mean we couldn't do more to reduce that number.  What I'd 
>> like to know is why accidental poisoning is so high.  More than 54 
>> times as many deaths by accidental poisoning as by accidental 
>> discharge of firearms.  Looking into it, I see it consists mainly of 
>> drug causes (91%), including prescription pain killers, cocaine, and 
>> heroin at the top of the list.
>>
>> Paul
>>
>>
>> On 03/23/2013 05:36 AM, Art Deco wrote:
>>> The New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>> March 22, 2013
>>>
>>>
>>>   Saving Children From Guns
>>>
>>>
>>>             By JOE NOCERA
>>>
>>> For nearly two months, my assistant, Jennifer Mascia 
>>> <http://www.jennifermascia.com/>, and I have been publishing a daily 
>>> blog <http://nocera.blogs.nytimes.com/category/gun-report/> in which 
>>> we aggregate articles about shootings from the previous day. Of all 
>>> the stories we link to, the ones I find hardest to read are those 
>>> about young children who accidentally shoot themselves or another 
>>> child. They just break my heart. Yet Jennifer and I find new 
>>> examples almost every day 
>>> <https://www.google.com/search?q=child+shoots&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a#q=child+shoots&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=xgX&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&psj=1&ei=m-xMUYWkAdSp4AOFzYDYCg&ved=0CA0Q_AUoBA&fp=1&biw=1730&bih=774&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&cad=b&sei=KPZMUeOdKafE4APM9IHgCw>. 
>>>
>>>
>>> Partly, I react by thinking, “How can anyone be so stupid as to 
>>> leave a loaded gun within reach of a small child?” But I also have 
>>> another reaction. In 1970, Congress passed a law that resulted in 
>>> childproofing medicine bottles. The Consumer Product Safety 
>>> Commission regulates the paint used in children’s toys. State laws 
>>> mandate that young children be required to use car seats.
>>>
>>> So why can’t we childproof guns? In an age of technological wizardry 
>>> — not to mention a time of deep sensitivity to the welfare of 
>>> children — why can’t we come up with a technology that would keep a 
>>> gun from going off when it is being held by a child? Or, for that 
>>> matter, by a thief using a stolen gun? Or an angry teenager who is 
>>> plotting to use his parents’ arsenal to wreak havoc in a mall?
>>>
>>> It turns out — why is this not a surprise? — that such technologies 
>>> already exist. A German company, Armartix, will soon be marketing a 
>>> pistol that uses radio frequencies 
>>> <http://www.gizmag.com/armatrix-wristwatch-safety-system-for-handguns/14044/> 
>>> that prevent a gun from being used by anyone except its owner. At 
>>> the New Jersey Institute of Technology, the senior vice president 
>>> for research and development, Donald Sebastian, has long spearheaded 
>>> an effort to develop biometrics for “gun personalization,” as it’s 
>>> called. Guns employing this technology fire only when they recognize 
>>> the hand of the owner. There are others who have invented similar 
>>> technologies.
>>>
>>> Why aren’t these lifesaving technologies 
>>> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-shuster/smart-gun-technology_b_2324978.html> 
>>> in widespread use? No surprise here, either: The usual irrational 
>>> opposition from the National Rifle Association and gun absolutists, 
>>> who claim, absurdly, that a gun that only can be fired by its owner 
>>> somehow violates the Second Amendment. Pro-gun bloggers were furious 
>>> when they saw James Bond, in “Skyfall,” proudly showing off his new 
>>> biometrically protected weapon 
>>> <http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/11/skyfall_someone_should_make_james_bond_s_biometric_walther_ppk_s_gun.html>. 
>>> They were convinced it was a Hollywood plot to undermine their rights.
>>>
>>> Yet there is reason for at least some hope that the day when these 
>>> technologies are in widespread use will soon be here. Last week, 
>>> there were two important meetings about gun personalization 
>>> technology. On March 13, in Washington, Attorney General Eric Holder 
>>> Jr. met with several dozen advocates, including Sebastian and 
>>> Stephen Teret, the co-director of the Center for Law and the Public 
>>> Health at Johns Hopkins University. The purpose of the meeting was 
>>> to get Holder up to speed on the technologies so he could make 
>>> recommendations to President Obama.
>>>
>>> The following day, in San Francisco, Sandy Hook Promise 
>>> <http://www.sandyhookpromise.org/>, an organization founded by 
>>> citizens of Newtown, Conn., publicly launched 
>>> <http://newtownbee.com/news/news/0001/11/30/sandy-hook-promise-launches-innovation-initiative/10397> 
>>> its “innovation initiative” in collaboration with some Silicon 
>>> Valley venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. One of the leaders in 
>>> the effort is the venture capitalist Ron Conway, who coincidentally 
>>> threw a Christmas party on the day of the Newtown massacre. 
>>> Gabrielle Giffords was among those who attended. Like so many 
>>> others, Conway decided he had to do something about guns after Newtown.
>>>
>>> The innovation initiative, which will make grants, and even award 
>>> prize money for good ideas, includes an emphasis on gun 
>>> personalization technology. A member of the group, Alan Boinus 
>>> <http://www.lagunabeachindependent.com/2012/07/26/guest-column-mirror-america/>, 
>>> who applied for a patent on a biometric technology back in 1994, has 
>>> founded a company, Allied Biometrics, that is devoted to 
>>> commercializing biometric gun technology. He has already begun a 
>>> collaboration with Sebastian in New Jersey.
>>>
>>> In classic Silicon Valley fashion, Boinus told me that the 
>>> government has been hopeless, and that innovation and the market 
>>> itself would solve the problem. “The market will prove this out,” he 
>>> said. “People want to be responsible. People want safety.”
>>>
>>> I agree with him that Congress has been hopeless and then some, 
>>> unable to even work up the courage 
>>> <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/03/19/feinstein-assault-weapons-ban-reid-senate-bill/2000119/> 
>>> to vote on an assault weapons ban for fear of offending gun owners. 
>>> But I’m not convinced that the market alone can create mass 
>>> acceptance of this technology. It took years, after all, for 
>>> Congress to overcome the car industry’s resistance to air bags, 
>>> ultimately requiring a law that made air bags mandatory.
>>>
>>> Thousands of lives 
>>> <http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html> 
>>> could be saved each year if gun personalization technology became 
>>> the law of the land. In mid-April, Representative John Tierney, a 
>>> Massachusetts Democrat, plans to introduce a House bill requiring 
>>> that all guns include personalization technology within two years.
>>>
>>> Congress once cared enough about the safety of its citizens to pass 
>>> laws about air bags and childproof bottles. We’ll soon find out if 
>>> it still cares enough about the safety of its constituents to make 
>>> childproofing guns the law of the land. It should.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
>>> art.deco.studios at gmail.com <mailto:art.deco.studios at gmail.com>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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