Let’s face it, since their introduction to the United States back in the 1970s, ATVs have made for some prime media targeting. Time and time again the media has provided the groundwork for eager lawmakers to pass bills to protect us from ourselves based on their reports and it appears as though they’re at it again.

The latest report, which comes from Reuters, claims that statistically ATVs are more deadly than motorcycles (which themselves are no stranger to negative press campaigns).

The data used to support such findings was limited to trauma surgeons and public health researchers who revealed statistics at a recent annual meeting of the American College of Surgeons.

The main point of the article was to prove statistically that in a similar accident, an ATV rider is more likely to sustain life-threatening when compared to that of a motorcycle operator.

The information used to obtain this statistic came from from a national trauma bank on nearly 60,000 accidents that occurred between 2002 and 2006.

What this information fails to reveal however is the simple reality that statistics prove, despite far more ATV units being sold domestically each year over motorcyles, the annual death toll is far from equal: There are somewhere between 800 and 900 deaths due to ATV accidents each year, according to ATVSafety.gov compared to a national average of motorcycling fatalities hovering around 5,000 per year (the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), which represents the state highway safety offices nationwide, projects that motorcycling deaths declined from 5,290 in 2008 to 4,762 or fewer in 2009).

In conclusion the real danger associated in trying to weigh in on labeling one power sport more dangerous than another depends heavily on which statistics the “researchers” in question happen to be considering. Perhaps such slanted information could be ignored if the article didn’t go on to say that the results are a warning for parents, lawmakers, and teachers – and for ATV dealers and manufacturers, too.

To put a little perspective to these statistics, consider the following: In 2004 there were 2,900 fatalaties reported in the US due to swimming, 900 fatalities due to bicycling, 5,900 pedestrian deaths, and 46,200 fatalities due to automobile accidents.

The trouble with passing laws to protect us from ourselves is that doing so discounts the very notion that objects (whether they are guns, ATVs, automobiles or swim trunks) are quite harmless by themselves. It is the operators use (or misuse) that makes them deadly. Laws that prohibit us from having the choice to use such things correctly then become attacks on our very freedoms. Call us crazy, but we’re pretty sure limitations on human freedom has never been the American way. To view the original article as it appeared under the health section of MSNBC’s site: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39541305/ns/health-more_health_news/