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Should Swimming Pools Be Banned? PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jeff Garvas   
Monday, 13 June 2005

That is the question the Arizona Daily Star asked in a story on Sunday titled "Which of these is a greater danger?" The story looks at drownings vs. gun related deaths involving children under age 15. The conclusion? A child is 100 times more likely to drown in a pool than be killed by a gun.

From the story:
    "They're pulled from backyard pools and bathtubs each year, tiny limp bodies, blue and not breathing.

    A young life can vanish quickly under water. A survivor can endure a lifetime of disabilities. Either way, families are torn apart by an almost always preventable tragedy.

    Standard summer companions in our desert climate, swimming pools can be deadlier for children than guns. A child is 100 times more likely to die in a swimming accident than in gunplay, writes Steven D. Levitt, University of Chicago economics professor and best-selling author.

    Levitt analyzed child deaths from residential swimming pools and guns and found one child under 10 drowns annually for every 11,000 pools. By comparison, one child under 10 each year is killed by a gun for every 1 million guns, according to his research, outlined in a new book "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side to Everything," which he co-wrote with journalist Stephen J. Dubner.

    In part because they are so familiar, swimming pools are less frightening than guns, Levitt writes.

    But the danger is clear - drowning is the leading cause of accidental death for children younger than 5 in Arizona and the second-leading cause of injury-related death nationally among children younger than 15."
What is the leading cause of accidental death among children nationally?

Accidents involving motor vehicles.

The following statistics from 1981 forward are from the National Center for Health Statistics, while those prior to 1981 are from the National Safety Council. Compiled by the NRA-ILA:

In 2002, there were 60 firearm accident deaths among children in the United States. Today, the odds are more than a million to one against a child in the U.S. dying from a firearm accident. The firearm accident death rate is at an all-time annual low over all ages 0.26 per 100,000 population - down 92% since the all-time high in 1904.

Firearms are involved in 1% of deaths among children. Most accidental deaths among children involve, or are due to, motor vehicles (44%), suffocation (16%), drowning (16%), fires (9%), bicycles (2%), poisoning (2%), falls (2%), environmental factors (1%), and medical mistakes (1%).

In a story closer to home, Dayton's whiotv.com reported last week that a 2-year-old was found dead in a swimming pool late Tuesday night.

From that story:
    Police said the mother left her 2-year-old twins in a downstairs bedroom for a nap. She said she heard one of the boys crying and found that they had gotten outside through a window.

    The mother told police that she found her other son floating face down in the pool.
Anytime a child dies it tugs at our heartstrings. Perhaps the time has come for the gun ban extremists to shift their focus to automobiles and swimming pools. Afterall, they claim to be interested in educating the public in preventing unintentional death and injury. What better place to start than with the leading causes?