Guns in the home :: essays research papers fc

Statistics on the National Safe Kids Campaign Website reveals that Americans possess nearly 200 trillion firearms, including 65 million hand shoots. Approximately one-third of families with children (representing more than 22 million children in 11 million homes) keep at least one gun in the home. Gun owners keep firearms in the home for hunting and recreation (60 percent) or for protection and offensive activity pr evetion (40 percent). Although 40 percent seems to be on the minority, households with guns are at higher risk of homicide, and there are few beneficial effects of gun ownership as a result, alternative methods for crime prevention and protection should be adopted.The most startling examples of these risks usually involve children. Children are very curious and will stop at nothing to rule new ideas. When they play, it is normal for them to move about and find bits and pieces around the house. This innocent, normal behavior becomes dangerous when children start findin g guns hidden or lying around. A typical story was told by the Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization working together for nuclear disarmament, (PSR) when three-year-old Billy Higgins sat in the corner of his parents bedroom, consternation and confused, a gun having just gone off in his hand. His 2 year old sister, Anne Marie, lay motionless on her back, a small jumble in her chest. While playing with his sister, Billy had found his fathers loaded handgun in a bedroom drawer. The father, John Higgins, never daydream his small children were capable of finding or using his gun. He was wrong. And his daughter died. (Billy Higgins) Obviously, John Higgins thought that he had his gun only accessible to himself, and even if his kids found it, they would not be able to shoot it. However, the National Safe Kids Campaign website shows that Children as young as age 3 are beefed-up enough to pull the trigger of many of the handguns available in the United States.Not only are children at risk but also adults. A study by Arthur Kellerman shows that the risk of homicide in the home is three times greater in households with guns.(2) He implies that guns stored in the home are more a lot used to kill a familiar person than an intruder. Gun owners do not always know who theyre shooting when they pull the trigger, often the dupe of this shooting is a family member.