> Drowning is the single most dangerous form of activity for children.
Drowning is not a form of activity. It might be the single most common cause of accidental death (just checked, it seems to be, but only for children aged 1-4 [0]), but that's different than being the most dangerous activity. If you are comparing danger of activities (like, say, swimming) you would compare the frequency of the thing you are looking at the danger of (e.g., death or injury) for people who engage in the activity (e.g., deaths per hour swimming) vs. other activities.
> We're more than happy to ban guns
Well, not in America. (Whether we should be or not; firearms regulations are extraordinarily politically controversial in the US as a simple matter of fact.)
> I know, I know: swimming pools complete an idyllic image of summer, and in reality it will be a long while before it's even plausible we'd think about putting the most basic of restrictions on them.
Actually, that's not true. We have put restrictions on them, such as California's Swimming Pool Safety Act, requires anti-drowning safety measures for all residential pools for which building (incl. remodel) permits are issued after January 1, 2007.
Drowning is not a form of activity. It might be the single most common cause of accidental death (just checked, it seems to be, but only for children aged 1-4 [0]), but that's different than being the most dangerous activity. If you are comparing danger of activities (like, say, swimming) you would compare the frequency of the thing you are looking at the danger of (e.g., death or injury) for people who engage in the activity (e.g., deaths per hour swimming) vs. other activities.
> We're more than happy to ban guns
Well, not in America. (Whether we should be or not; firearms regulations are extraordinarily politically controversial in the US as a simple matter of fact.)
> I know, I know: swimming pools complete an idyllic image of summer, and in reality it will be a long while before it's even plausible we'd think about putting the most basic of restrictions on them.
Actually, that's not true. We have put restrictions on them, such as California's Swimming Pool Safety Act, requires anti-drowning safety measures for all residential pools for which building (incl. remodel) permits are issued after January 1, 2007.
[0] http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/pdf/leading_causes_of_inju...