clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

The funniest argument for locking up your guns you'll see

Dylan Matthews is a senior correspondent and head writer for Vox's Future Perfect section and has worked at Vox since 2014. He is particularly interested in global health and pandemic prevention, anti-poverty efforts, economic policy and theory, and conflicts about the right way to do philanthropy.

Well this is certainly the most provocative (and funniest) PSA I've seen in a good long time:

The group behind the ad, Evolve Together, is a "consciously apolitical" organization that aims to promote gun safety through public awareness campaigns without taking sides in legislative disputes.

And regardless of where you stand on the proper role of government in controlling access to guns, unintentional child deaths from firearms are entirely too common. The CDC estimates that an average of 62 children under the age of 14 were accidentally shot and killed each year from 2007 to 2011, and a new report from the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety uses media reports to estimate that at least 100 children were killed in accidental shootings from December 2012 to December 2013.

Zack Beauchamp has great, sobering maps on the scale of the US gun violence problem here and here. And it's worth remembering that even if we train people in gun safety and reduce accidents, we'll still have to deal with the biggest gun problem America faces: suicides. There were 19,392 gun suicides in 2010 — 61 percent of all gun deaths.

Sign up for the newsletter Sign up for Vox Recommends

Get curated picks of the best Vox journalism to read, watch, and listen to every week, from our editors.