I want to commend Robert Wooley for recognizing the ridiculousness of claims of such dubious merit. As someone who is supportive of the effort to reduce death and injury in part with gun control, I've been known to visibly wince and even lash out occasionally at some of the gun banners more outrageous claims, so I can understand, appreciate your modest effort to improve the dialog. Unfortunately the response you received is all too indicative of discussion boards in general. I know that when I initially subscribed to this one, I was hoping for more than the reasoning exemplified by one who describes feral children as capable of charm.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert Woolley Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 4:26 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; Firearmsregprof Subject: Re: Medicalizing Guns 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 _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof _______________________________________________ To post, send message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/firearmsregprof
