According to this interesting article,

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…

In part because they are so familiar, swimming pools are less frightening than guns, Levitt writes…

Water kills an average of three children each year in Tucson and, even with proper fences, swimming lessons and caution, danger lurks.

“Living with a swimming pool in your back yard is like living next to the Grand Canyon,” said Dr. Bob Berg, a pediatric intensive specialist at University Medical Center and a UA professor. “You should never feel comfortable there.”

But for some reason, the same people who advocate gun control aren’t also advocating mandatory licensing and safety tests for homeowners prior to letting them put a swimming pool into their backyards. (Via Tom McMahon.)