Dear Americans: What's the leading cause of death among the young?

[Minimalist]

I'll risk the knives and the clubs.

They rarely go off while being "cleaned."

[Mystical]

Dear Americans: What's the leading cause of death among the young?

Republicans.

[Drich]

Do you know?

The leading cause of death for young people (under 30) in the USA is

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violence

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It eclipses communicable disease.

15,500 people a year in the USA die to

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homicides

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compared with 600 in Canada. Granted the USA has around 10x the population of Canada, but that means this the death rate from this cause of death is still well more than double Canada's!

so?

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would you rather them all die in a fire?

[John V]

Dear Americans: What's the leading cause of death among the young?

Republicans.

Republicans cause car accidents??

[Aractus]

I'll risk the knives and the clubs.

They rarely go off while being "cleaned."

Or if you drop, bump or knock a loaded weapon it can kill you also.

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so?

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would you rather them all die in a fire?

Drich, did you think that was an intelligent response/question?

[The Grand Nudger]

Or if you drop, bump or knock a loaded weapon it can kill you also.

Unlikely, maybe if you dropped, bumped, or knocked a loaded weapon that had a bayonet attached (and subsequently dove on it), guns don't "just go off". There are actually manufacturing standards in play, then further federal standards, and then further state standards. They load these guns and then -shoot them-, as in shoot the gun not the round, at concrete at various angles from various heights. If they "just go off" that's a failure condition.

[Aractus]

And yet it happens:

That case was originally ruled as a suicide, and was only overturned because the parents forced the death to be further investigated, which ultimately showed that the victim died by the gun spontaneously going off on its own (possibly because it was knocked, bumped or dropped) without a trigger pull. How many other cases of accidental death where a gun has gone off on its own have been ruled as suicide and never re-investigated? We can't know, but as shown above it certainly happens.

[Chas]

And yet it happens:

That case was originally ruled as a suicide, and was only overturned because the parents forced the death to be further investigated, which ultimately showed that the victim died by the gun spontaneously going off on its own (possibly because it was knocked, bumped or dropped) without a trigger pull. How many other cases of accidental death where a gun has gone off on its own have been ruled as suicide and never re-investigated? We can't know, but as shown above it certainly happens.

Because it had a faulty safety mechanism - that is, it was broken. It remains very, very unlikely, so while we may never know how many, we can be quite sure that the number is very, very small.

[The Grand Nudger]

The link didn't elaborate on why the trigger mechanism was faulty. Sounds like poor old Jake there was a negligent firearm owner. His safety was damaged, and the cylinder had a habit of jamming. Makes you wonder if he ever cleaned the thing...and of course he was very "responsible" in how he handled the weapon. I think the report was a wonderful explanation of the investigation -into the matter of whether or not a man committed suicide. It doesn't seem like he intended to do so, but lets not claim that his gun just "went off" one day. Clearly, the firearm was not in proper working order and he was not a competent owner. Now, we might imagine that it came off the factory line that way, but again, that's highly unlikely. More a case of (to my mind) longstanding user negligence. If I had to shoot from the hip on this one..I'd say (with near certainty) that he had cowboyed the pistol more than once and that it probably needed cleaning. The discharge was a long time and alot of effort in the making. Now, It isn't clear that he bought it new (and for the price quoted in the report it seems like it may have been used, but you never know, sales and all)...so it may be that a previous owner had damaged the weapon, that the reseller had sold a defective weapon (on and on). None of this, of course, excuses the man from scratching his head with a loaded revolver.

(the pistol in question is a Windicator, btw, not the best, but compliant with standards)

[Whateverist]

Are we bashing guns? Yippee. Rhythm, may I suggest you see if you can keep a beat with a set of drums?