Again , you ' re not getting the point I ' m making here . The start of this conversation was this Having a gun in the home makes you more likely to die of a gunshot , not less . This is true from the perspective of the overall population . However , this is an utterly useless piece of data for making a personal decision to own a firearm or not , as the increased risk is two avoidable things , suicides and accidents . If you have no suicidal tendencies and you have been informed of basic gun safety , your personal risk of getting shot by your own firearm is about zero . Yes , many people will commit suicide or have an accident with their firearm , but you are not at risk of either of those things and so a statistic that incorporates those things is not relevant to you . For another example , I ride motorcycles . Motorcyclists are 27 times more likely to die on the road than drivers are . However , when you look at the data of those , huge portions of those killed were legally drunk , speeding significantly , not wearing a helmet much less any other gear , unlicensed , etc . I ' ve had advanced instruction , I wear full gear , I don ' t drink and ride and I ride within the law . What is my risk on the motorcycle ? Well , I ' m sure it still isn ' t anywhere near as safe as a car . On the other hand , my personal risk is certainly not anywhere near that 27 x number either because my behavior as an individual is different from that of a lot of the people who die .