American children are more at risk from firearms than the children of any other industrialized nation. In one year, firearms killed no children in Japan, 19 in Great Britain, 57 in Germany, 109 in France, 153 in Canada, and 5,285 in the United States. (Centers for Disease Control) and this is only CHILDREN.
Is this the price we must pay to live in a FREE country?
First, the CDC thinks 19 year olds are CHILDREN. Here is a direct quote from the CDC page listing "Youths" as adults up to the age of 29 years!
FROM THEW CDC:
" Youth violence is defined as: “The intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, exerted by or against children, adolescents or young adults, ages 10–29, which results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment, or deprivation” (Mercy et al. 2002)."
I'm not sure how some 25+ year old gangbangers, or a 29 year old are supposed to be "youths". I'd classify them as ADULTS!
I searched the CDC, and could find no statistics that back up your claim, or any other real statistics that did not include adults in the equation.
Where ever you got your statistics from are wrong. Most antigun groups who publish stats on Child or Youth violence or deaths include what the majority of people would consider ADULTS. The only way for them to get High Numbers (and their "One child is murdered every day by guns" bull****) is to inflate the statistics with adults, not limiting the age range to just children.
Second, do a search and find the NON GUN Homocide rates or the total homicide rates for children in the other countries and compare. You will find then even in areas without guns, children are still killed by other means. Removing guns does not stop homicides:
Here are the REAL facts:
* FACT: 82% of homicides to children age 13 and under were committed without a gun. (1997, FBI Uniform Crime Statistics)
* FACT: 0.1% of all deaths for children between the ages 0-14 are from firearms, 0.6% are from motor vehicles, 5.3% are from being struck in beatings or bludgeoning, 6.0% from poisoning, and 42.6% from suffocation. (1997 National Center for Health Statistics National Vital Statistics Report)
A sad fact is that a child is more likely to be smothered by a pillow, strangled or beaten to death, poisoned intentionally with rat killer or drain cleaner, or even strapped into a car seat and rolled into a lake than ever be shot by a gun!
* FACT: In 1996 there were only 21 accidental gun deaths for children under age 15. About twice as many children under 10 die from drowning in bathtubs.
(Center for Disease Control)
Here are the FACTS that the antigunners twist into the CHILDREN STATISTICS.
* FACT: Two-thirds of the people that die each year from gunfire are criminals shooting other criminals. (FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1994)
* FACT: 18-20 year olds commit over 23% of all gun murders. None of these criminals are allowed to purchase a handgun due to their age under current law. (U.S. Treasury and Justice Dept. Report, 1999)
In reality, most of the YOUTH gun deaths (that are twisted into CHILD STATS are from Criminals shooting each other over gang turf, drugs etc. I'm not sure I would classify a 16 year old gangbanger as a Child, or a 17 year old drug dealer who was shot selling crack on the wrong corner.
When you look at REAL Crime and Violence statistics you will see:
* FACT: 90% of all violent crime in the U.S. does not involve any gun of any type. (1998 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms)
* FACT: Less than 1% of all guns will ever be used in the commission of any type of crime (much less violent crime). (FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 1994)
* FACT: Every day, 550 rapes, 1,100 murders, and 5,200 other violent crimes per day are prevented just by showing a handgun. In less than 0.9% of the time is the gun ever actually ever fired. (Gary Kleck, Criminologist, Florida State Univ)
* FACT: Every year, people in the United States use a gun to defend themselves against criminals an estimated 2,500,000 times- more than 6,500 people a day, or once every 13 seconds. (1995, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology)
* FACT: There are more guns in the U.S. than cars (228,000,000 guns according to the 1998 FBI statistics and 207,754,000 automobiles according to the 1998 Federal Highway Administration registrations). Yet, you are 31 times more likely to be accidentally killed by a car than a gun according to the National Safety Council…despite cars having been registered and licensed for more than 100 years.
Take your antigun trolling elsewhere.