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It makes perfect sense that children living in households with guns would be more likely to die from accidental gunshot wounds than children in households without guns. I'm not going to argue against that part of the study, becuase I agree with it. And yes, more kids die from drowning than from gunshot wounds.
"the decade between 1988 and 1997, when 6,817 children ages 5 to 14 died from gunshot wounds"
That's not anywhere close to the "13 children per day" that gun control advocates have often claimed.
Take a look at the states that they chose for the study. One group consists of 5 of the richest states, and the other group consists of 5 of the poorer states. The fact is that people who live in richer states have better access to medical care than people who live in poorer states.
Also, another split between the two groups is that one consists of geographically larger states, where many people live in rural areas far away from hospitals, whereas the other group consists mostly of geographically smaller states where people are more likely to live in big cities, near hospitals.
John Lott's studies are much more thorough, because he looked at all 50 of the states.
Another reason that Lott's studies are more thorough is because he looked at many different areas both before and after they allowed people to carry guns. Time and time again, he found that when an area made it legal for people to carry guns, their crime rate fell, relative to surrounding areas that did not allow people to carry guns.
Actually, in addition to Lott's studies looking at all 50 states, he goes even further than that, and looks at all of the 3,000+ counties in the country. That's where things get especially interesting. If you compare two neighboring counties, where one allows gun ownership, and the other doesn't, things get especially interesting. Criminals are more likely to prefer the country where they know their victims are unarmed.
By the way, Vermont is the only U.S. state that has no gun control laws. And Vermont has the 2nd lowest murder rate of any state in the U.S. Vermont's murder rate is actually lower than Japan's.
Switzerland has a very high rate of gun ownership. Every abled bodied male is required to keep a gun in his home. People regularly carry their guns down the street in the open. Shooting competitions are a national pasttime. And their murder rate is quite low. They treat guns with respect, and they teach gun safety to children.
My state of Pennslyvania is a gun state. It's very easy to get a gun permit here. And a huge number of people have permits. And there are a lot of hunters, too. I don't know anyone who was murdered with a gun. But I know one person who was murdered with a knife, one person who was murdered with a martial arts wepaon, and one person who was killed in a fistfight, althought I wouldn't necessarily call that one murder.
Another nationwide trend in the U.S. is that the blue counties have a murder rate that is more than 6 times as high as the red counties. The red counties are the ones that voted for Bush, where people love guns, and gun culture is the norm.
By the way, saying that Europe is safer than the U.S. isn't accurate. The Nazis and the communists in Europe both murdered over 10 million innocent civilians during the 20th century. During the 20th century, there was never a case where an armed population was a victim of a mass genocide. The long term trend of the 20th century shows that Europre's murder rate was much, much higher than that in the United States.
The Nazis had Switzerland surrounded, and were planning to invade. But when Hitler found out that the Swiss were well armed, well trained, and ready to defend themselves, he changed his mind. Jews who fled the Nazi controlled countries often took refuge in Switzerland.
There's a supposed converstion that happened between two Swiss citizens. I don't know if it really happened or not, but it does get the point across:
"If two million Nazis attack one million Swiss citizens, what will you do?"
"I fire my gun twice, and then I go home."
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