On 5/16/04 1:13 AM, "Jon Roland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> For every person wounded or killed by gunfire, five lives were saved by
> defensive use of guns.[ix]
> <http://www.jpfo.org/cosman-medicalizingguns.htm#_edn9>

This strikes me as exceptionally implausible. I assume it derives from the
observation that surveys show something like five times as many defensive
gun uses as gun crimes. But neither side of that observation is reflected
accurately in the claim here. The number of crimes committed with guns is
certainly not equal to the number of people "wounded or killed by gunfire."
And the number of defensive gun uses (even assuming we have a decent handle
on what that number is) is certainly not equal to the number of lives saved
by defensive use of guns, unless one makes the ludicrous assumption that
every defensive gun use saves a life. Predictably, the references here are
completely vague, just mentioning two books, without specific page numbers.
And an author who will so distort facts and cover his tracks is, IMHO, so
untrustworthy as to make it a waste of time to read what he has to say.

Surely, Jon, you have better taste and selectivity than to post stuff of
such dubious merit.

-- 

Bob Woolley
St. Paul, MN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]




"Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize on it."

                                -- Mark Twain


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