Every time a child dies as result of a gun, the hoplophobes rush out to blame the gun culture, from WaPo [1]:
On Sunday afternoon in a two-story home on Cleveland’s East Side, a 3-year-old boy picked up an unattended handgun and shot a 1-year-old boy in the face, police said. Minutes later, the infant was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
“It’s a sad day for Cleveland,” Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams told reporters outside the home later Sunday. “Everybody has to know that this fascination we have with handguns, not just in this city but in this country, has to stop.”
“This is a senseless loss of life in this city again,” Williams added, “and it’s directly related to guns, and we need to really take a hard look at the things that we’re doing out there on the state, local and the national level to get these guns out of our communities. Nothing good ever happens.”
To which I say, bullshit! WaPo [2] again (September, 2014):
We know how many gun deaths were declared accidental (591 in 2011, the CDC says). And we know that 102 people killed in these accidental gun deaths in 2011 were younger than 18, according to Vernick, with half of these children younger than age 13.
Circa six hundred accidentals gun deaths a year, in nation with over three hundred million people and an estimated three hundred million guns is unfortunate. It does not qualify as major problem. Over two thousand people die from accidental chocking [3]
Hot dogs can be a quick, easy — and deadly — meal. Hot dogs are the perfect size, shape and consistency to block a child’s airway, and a WebMd report rates hot dogs as the top choking hazard for children. Choking killed about 2,500 people in 2009, according to the National Safety Council, and kids ages 3 and under are at the highest risk. Potential choking hazards include balloons, marshmallows, gooey gel candies, grapes, nuts, chewing gum, carrots, chunks of meat and peanut butter, apples, hard, round candies and small toys kids like to put in their mouths. Reduce your child’s risk of choking by cutting up foods into very small pieces and closely monitoring your children while eating, especially if they are eating while walking, laughing or fooling around.
Can we expect Chief Williams to soil his nappies over our cultural obsession with hot dogs?