CNN ran an article on the front page of its website today in which the topic of parents asking about guns prior to playdates and sleepovers.

The article said more parents are asking the question about gun ownership and storage before letting children go to a friend’s home.

What is surprising is that CNN actually admitted the following in the article.

Despite incidents such as the recent death of a 6-year-old New Jersey boy shot in the head by a 4-year-old playmate, as well as the accidental shooting of a Tennessee sheriff’s deputy’s wife by a 4-year-old boy, accidental firearms deaths are rare among children. According to the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 703 children under the age of 15 died in accidental firearms deaths between 2001 and 2010, the latest year for which the agency’s statistics on fatalities are available. During the same period, 7,766 children under the age of 14 suffered accidental firearms injuries — about one injury for every million children.

Injuries (note, that is injuries, not deaths) occur at a rate of around 1 in 1,000,000.

This is interesting because we keep hearing that stricter gun control is needed to protect our children.

In fact, firearms are one of the lowest causes of death in young children even when accidents, homicides and suicides are all taken into account.

The leading causes of death in young children are natural causes, drowning, auto accidents, suffocation, and other accidents (not firearms related). (Sources: Here, Here and Here