Despite Leftist Handwringing, Bicycles More Dangerous to Kids Than Guns

by Warner Todd Huston | February 18, 2014 7:11 pm

Liberals are still wailing about the “danger” our kids face in schools due to guns in the classroom and mass shootings. But even as Bloomberg’s absurd anti-gun group and others act as if we have some national crisis, the reality of it is that bicycles hurt more kids every year than guns, and not by just a little.

Certainly it is appalling if even one child is hurt in school and outrageous if he is hurt with a gun, but before we get all crazed over the “crisis” of guns in school, we need a bit of perspective.

For instance, left-wing Slate magazine noted[1] just after the crime at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012 that 297 kids had been killed in school shooting between 1980 and 2012.

Again, it is horrid that even one child should be killed at school, but let’s look at just a few other statistics to which to compare that three decades of school shootings.

30,000 kids each year are injured in biking accidents[2], 10,000 require hospitalization. Depending on the year some 200 kids (up to age 18) are killed each year while riding a bike.

In 2011, 1,140 kids died[3] in car accidents while 171,000 were injured.

It is estimated[4] that 4,423 kids are injured each year by amusement park and carnival rides.

98,000 kids are injured[5] by accidents on trampolines each year.

So, it seems to be more dangerous to kids to rid4e a bike, sit in a car, or even get on a carnival ride than to go to school. And by the handwringing logic of the left, we should be more interested in banning cars, bicycles, swimming pools, and other things that seem to be more dangerous for kids than guns in schools. But they ignore all those things to focus on a lesser danger. It makes no sense–except to note that it can be used for another purpose, that of banning guns everywhere. It is all emotion cynically used for an ulterior motive.

Liberals don’t give a darn about “the kids.”

So, it seems to be more dangerous to kids to rid4e a bike, sit in a car, or even get on a carnival ride than to go to school.

Further, fatalities in schools are actually a bit lower these days, despite the several high profile shootings. As James Alan Fox noted[6] in USA Today, recently:

As it happens, the numbers assembled by [Moms Demand Gun Sense in America and Mayors Against Illegal Guns] are not out-of-line with historical patterns, and, in fact, are lower than two decades ago when gang violence was especially problematic at school settings. And, as added perspective, consider that there are more than 50 million school children in America, making the risk of fatality well below one in two million.

So, the claims that gun crime in our schools is somehow “on the rise,” or out of step historically or even higher than that of deaths by other means is simply untrue.

Further, we need these actual facts taken into account before we start making hasty and ill-conceived laws or rules concerning guns, schools and kids.

Endnotes:
  1. noted: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/map_of_the_week/2012/12/sandy_hook_a_chart_of_all_196_fatal_school_shootings_since_1980_map.html
  2. biking accidents: http://www.muherlaw.com/personal-injury/bicycle-safety-for-kids-over-summer-vacation/
  3. 1,140 kids died: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pubs/811767.pdf
  4. estimated: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/01/thousands-of-kids-hurt-yearly-on-amusement-rides/
  5. injured: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pediatricians-warn-against-trampoline-use-at-home-citing-injury-risks/
  6. noted: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/02/16/james-alan-fox-moms-mayors-guns/5486429/

Source URL: https://rightwingnews.com/democrats/despite-leftist-handwringing-bicycles-more-dangerous-to-kids-than-guns/