Even though handgun deaths are actually down a bit from the early '90s, says a piece in Sunday's NYT Week in Review, recent well-publicized shootings tend to stimulate lawful gun purchases for household protection, which may be bad news for those households, since according to one quoted expert, the odds that a home will be the scene of a homicide are substantially greater if there is a gun in the home.
The decrease in deaths caused by guns in the home could be undone because of how the media covers shootings.
Statistics say that having a gun at home has no adverse effects and is the safest option.