Cheerleading more hazardous than hunting

Another good article on today's The Shooting Wire. (If you aren't already subscribed to TSW, I'd recommend it!)

Accidental Fatalities Hit New LOW

The National Safety Council has released new data that demonstrates that accidental firearms fatalities continue to remain at the lowest levels since the NSC began record keeping. In fact, over the last decade, fatalities have dropped 40 percent, from 1,225 in 1995 to 730 in 2005.

There were key findings that say you're less likely to be injured by a firearm than you are by a motor vehicle, poison, falls, choking, flames (and smoke), drowning, suffocation, natural heat and cold, or being struck by or against an object.

In fact, if hazardous activities were outlawed on a statistical basis, cheerleading equipment would be more likely to be outlawed than firearms - or footballs. Cheerleading, due to the new emphasis on gymnastics and increasingly more dangerous stunts, has claimed the number one position in traumatic injuries in high school and college sports.

Here are some other key findings, courtesy of the National Shooting Sports Foundation's Industry Intelligence Reports:

Firearms-related injuries have been decreasing consistently since record keeping began in 1903 and dramatically in the past 10 years.

Over the last nine years, the number of unintentional firearm related fatalities for children (ages 14 and under) has decreased by 69 percent.

Accidental firearm-related fatalities are substantially lower compared to the number of accidental deaths caused by other injury types.

Hunting is one of the safest forms of recreation in the United States.

Firearms are involved in fewer than 1.2 percent of accidental fatalities among children.

In the past 10 years, firearms-related accidents in the home have dropped by more than 44 percent.

Firearms are involved in fewer than 1 percent (0.7 percent) of all accidental fatalities in the United States.

Over the last decade the rate of firearm-related injuries per 100,000 people has declined by 60 percent, from 0.5 percent in 1995 to 0.2 percent in 2005.

In other words, don't let anyone tell you that responsible ownership of a firearm is irresponsible.

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I'm looking for the original NSC report... if anyone has a link, I'd sure appreciate being pointed in the right direction.