text: 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 .
  
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  Statistics say that having a gun at home has no adverse effects and is the safest option .