The second amendment of the constitution guarantees the right to keep and bear arms. As the specter of gun violence continues in our workplaces, roads and schools, the question keeps arising: do guns keep you safe, or just increase the level of violence?
As stated by the Departments of Justice and Education, in their joint, annual "Indicators of School Crime and Safety" reports, school shootings are exceedingly rare, and children are much safer at school than when away from school. NRA has long advocated that gun owners keep firearms secured, as called for by their personal circumstances. For example, someone who lives without children in a rural part of the country has less reason to be concerned that someone will improperly obtain access to their firearms, than someone who lives in a urban area with a high burglary rate, or someone who has young children at home. Firearm-related suicides among children are uncommon, of course, accounting for 0.2 percent of deaths among children. Federal law prohibits the possession of firearms by people who have been adjudicated mentally incompetnet or committed to a mental institution, and recent modifications to the law will increase the inclusion of relevant mental health records in the records-check system used to screen firearm purchasers.
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