Wed, Mar 16, 2005 6:39pm ET

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Hannity claimed guns are "only dangerous in the hands of a criminal"

On the March 15 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, co-host Sean Hannity claimed: "It seems that people, and politically speaking on the left, have this misconception about weapons being something dangerous. They're only dangerous in the hands of a criminal." In fact, there are approximately 800 accidental firearm-related deaths and 15,000 unintentional gun-related injuries in the United States each year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) "National Vital Statistics Reports," 802 deaths in 2001 and 813 deaths in 2002 were attributed to "accidental discharge of firearms." The CDC also noted that "approximately 15,000 unintentional gunshot wounds are treated in U.S. hospital emergency departments (EDs) each year."

—A.S.

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