by fl0at » Mon Jan 23, 2012 2:57 pm
From your CDC link:
#3 Leading cause of death among 15-19: Suicide
#1 effector of suicide: Firearms
#2 Leading cause of death among 15-19: Homicide
#1 effector of homicide: Firearms
#1 Leading cause of death among 15-19: Unintential Injury
#1 effector of unintential injury: MVA
#5 Firearms
-------------------------------------
#4 in 10-14 yo: Homicide
#1 effector: Firearms
#3 in 10-14: Suicide
#2 effector: Firearms
#2 Neoplasm. Not much we can do there
#1 Unintentinal Injury
#1 effector: MVA
#9 effector: Firearms
------------------------------------
And let's consider this:
Of the 3270 deaths listed in the top 10 range for the age group from 1-4, 70 died from firearms.
Only 71, the #7 cause, died from septicemia. This means that firearms are the #8 leading cause of death among 1-4 year olds. Homicide by firearm is the #10 leading cause of death among 1-4 year olds.
Firearms are a leading cause of death among children. So are cars, so are bugs. We educate on both of those as well.
You know this better than anyone else here; medicine is about prevention. There isn't much we can do for SCLC after you get it... but we can at least attempt to limit the number of people who get it through education. There isn't much we can do about a lot of issues in medicine, after the fact. If you eat fatty food, high salt diet, lots of alcohol and don't exercise and are obese, there isn't much we can do about your soon to be DVTs progressing to PE, your BP control, Type II DM, vascular disease, CHF, nephropathy, liver failure, and etc. What we can do buys time... but the best friggen thing possible is to simply prevent it from occurring.
This is the purpose of firearms counselling. Prevention. Not complete removal. Ever been to a doc and he said you can never have Lay's chips again? Never have McDonalds again? Never have a drink? Must run a marathon a month? No. But, if you do all of those things... be smart about it. If you own firearms... be smart about it.