>>7
The difference, or at least one of them, and a big one btw, is that parents and how they parent their children has changed a lot in the United States. More and more people live in suburban or urban environments. As a result, I would presume a smaller and smaller portion of parents are teaching their children how to use firearms safely at an early age.
I think when people lived in more rural areas a longer time ago, parents more often had guns themselves, and more often made sure their children were semi-familiarized with them. This familiarization, I think, helps with a number of things, just two of which would be to lower the number of accidental deaths due to shootings, as well as to help get rid of some of the stigma/mystery surrounding firearms in the minds of children.
It comes as little surprise to me that as a smaller and smaller percentage of the population owns firearms and teaches their children responsible gun safety and familiarizes them with guns, that the number of accidental shootings will subsequently increase.
You can see the idea already functioning in other policy areas as well. In parts of Europe, for example, young people more typically grow up in an environment in which alcohol consumption is the norm - as well as done in a responsible manner. Taking this into mind, it comes as little surprise to me that certain parts of Europe have lower rates of alcohol abuse, likely due to this early-exposure during childhood that I think is crucial.
That said, it would be a good idea, I think, to ensure children are exposed to firearms at a younger age to de-mystify them, reduce the number of accidents and such, and to basically get the child to realize that when they hold a real gun in their hands, it isn't like all the bullshit they see on TV - but to realize that it is a REAL fucking gun that can kill people and destroy things, not a toy. That said, this is what we need. Firearms *education,* basically... and at a young age.