NSSF: Hunting ‘safer than most’ recreational activities

By Christen Smith

Hunter education instructor Ginger Bailey and a youth share time a field in eastern Colorado. (Photo: Jerry Neal/CPW)
The gun industry’s top trade association said this week hunting proves safer than playing football or baseball, according to federal data.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation released the 2017 edition of its Firearms-related Accident Statistics report Wednesday. The analysis leans on data collected from the Consumer Product Safety Commission and its National Electronic Injury Surveillance System to parse out the injury rates for popular recreational activities — from football to gymnastics to hunting and everything in between.
Federal data shows, out of more than two dozen sport categories, only one activity appears safer than hunting with firearms: billiards. The injury rate for pool players comes in at 15 per 100,000 participants. Hunting ranks second at 38 injuries per 100,000.
By comparison, injuries occur at a rate of 1,019 per 100,000 baseball players and 5,127 per 100,000 football players.
Some 17.6 million Americans hunted in 2015, according to the report. The CPSC received just under 6,700 reports of injuries sustained by hunters that same year — about .04 percent of all participants.
“There’s always work to do when it comes to improving hunter safety, because even one incident is

Source: Guns.com