Honesty is Such a Lonely Word...

Color me shocked when I saw the cover of today's Arizona Daily Star:

The story is available online here. Excerpt:

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.

Someone should inform Jean Hanff Korelitz. She thinks that "more than 4,000 children...die in gun-related accidents each year". But let's check the numbers anyway. According to the CDC, in 2002 there were 676 drowning deaths for children up through 9 years of age. There were 26 accidental firearm deaths. There were 142 firearm deaths of all intents; accident, homicide, and suicide. According to the 2003 UN Small Arms Survey, there are an estimated 238 to 276 million firearms in the U.S. Wouldn't that mean somewhere between 238 and 275 "children under 10" dying by gunshot, not 142? Professor Levitt really ought to review his numbers more rigorously. It looks like the ratio is more like 175:1.

Shocking, no?

Still, the headline (above the fold!) was quite attention-grabbing.

P.S: My grandchildren are in mortal danger! I own (several) guns, and my wife and I are considering getting a pool!