"Sunworshipper" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 30 May 2010 19:00:56 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On May 30, 5:49 pm, rangerssuck wrote:


I have an idea. You & I are about the same age. You keep guns in your
house, and I won't. Let's see who lives longer.

Read Freakonomics by Stewen Levitt and Stephan Dubner. It has actual
statistics on deaths by guns and deaths by swimming pools.


Dan

Really, what is the jest? I use to do pools, came close to death a
number of times in them. No water though, heat stroke.

SW

Dan is referring to a very curious statistic that Levitt came up with years
ago -- arguably, it's the report that made him famous -- that if one owns a
gun and a swimming pool, and has children, his children are roughly 100
times more likely to die by drowning in the pool than from being shot by the
gun.

If you pick apart his statistics, you see that he went for the most dramatic
fact that can be drawn from them. Nevertheless, swimming pools are dangerous
to young kids, in that parents only need to be inattentive for a few moments
for the kid to slip out of sight. In most households, the kids never get
their hands on the gun at young ages but they're in the pool on most nice
days.

As a former lifeguard, the statistic doesn't surprise me. I've had to pull
several kids out of the pool while their mothers were playing bridge or
jawing with the other country-club ladies. It's good for over-a-beer
conversations. It has shock value. Just be aware of the relative incidences
of contact before jumping to conclusions about it.

--
Ed Huntress