That's a very good point. The fact bringing a firearm home automatically increases the risk to those who live there leads me to believe there is a lack of respect for that firearm and how to handle and store it safely. Unless we're including suicides in the data, because then you could argue if they didn't do it with a gun, they'd find another way to do it.
When my dad was dying of brain cancer, he kept asking me to bring my "biggest gun" down to the farm to "shoot some snakes". He was full of shit and we both knew it. I don't shoot snakes (or anything else for that matter – I'm strictly a target shooter) and he had never before shown any interest in firearms, but suddenly he wanted me to bring a rifle down so he could take a moment out to shoot himself.
I kind of wanted to help him out, but there was really no way around it. I would have lost all my guns but more seriously could have faced assisted suicide (murder) charges for letting him do it.
So he went the old-fashioned way: in palliative care doped up on morphine. I still can't decide how I want to die: bullet to the head or heroin overdose. I'm still leaning towards that heroin overdose. Not a bad way to die, really. I'd feel like a hypocrite if I got to shoot myself while denying my dying father the same . . .
On a related note, if you own a firearm here it must be kept in two separate safes: one for the firearm, and another for the ammunition. You can't store ammo in the same safe as the firearm. You can't store a loaded firearm, either.
The system isn't designed to make it easy for you to get to your gun in the event of needing it for self-defence, but it does make it harder for kids to get their hands on guns and ammo. In the US, people leave loaded guns beside their bed and even under their pillow. Every now and then someone shoots themself in the head thinking they are answering their phone.
