"How Many Global Deaths from Arms?" David B. Kopel, Paul Gallant, Joanne D. Eisen
ABSTRACT: Currently, the United Nations is drafting an Arms Trade Treaty to impose strict controls on firearms and other weapons. In support of hasty adoption of the Treaty, a UN-related organization of Treaty supporters have produced a report claiming that armed violence is responsible for 740,000 deaths annually. This Article carefully examines the claim. We find that the claim is based on du- bious assumptions, cherry-picked data, and mathematical legerde- main which is inexplicably being withheld from the public. The re- fusal to disclose the mathematical calculations used to create the 740,000 factoid is itself cause for serious suspicion; our own calcula- tions indicate that the 740,000 figure is far too high. Further, while the report claims that 60% of homicides are per- petrated with firearms, our review of the data on which the report claimed to rely yields a 22% rate. The persons responsible for the report have refused to release their homicide calculations, or any other calculations. This Article also shows how a narrow focus on restricting fire- arm ownership continues to distract international attention from life-saving, viable solutions. We propose some practical alternatives which have already saved lives in war-ravaged areas. http://www.law.nyu.edu/ecm_dlv1/groups/public/@nyu_law_website__journals__journal_of_law_and_liberty/documents/documents/ecm_pro_068094.pdf -- Charles Curley /"\ ASCII Ribbon Campaign Looking for fine software \ / Respect for open standards and/or writing? X No HTML/RTF in email http://www.charlescurley.com / \ No M$ Word docs in email Key fingerprint = CE5C 6645 A45A 64E4 94C0 809C FFF6 4C48 4ECD DFDB _______________________________________________ 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 Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.
