> How many people in the last 18 months have been killed by
> the misuse of a gun?
I presume by "misuse" you mean "accidental" -- one might say that homicide during other criminal activity (about 60% of the total gun death in the US) is "misuse" but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Accidental shootings in the US have been declining for two decades, and the last number I saw was a little less than accidental gun 700 deaths in 2008, with about 50 of them being hunters. A GAO report from 1988 says that year had 1500, 277 of them "children under 15" ...
In rough numbers, it's somewhat more than the number of people who are electrocuted to death; somewhat less than those who choke to death. And about 1/10'th of the number who die in fires.
So I guess you're saying this is a Consumer Protection issue?
About 40% of all households in the US have at least one firearm.
/jordan