Monday, July 14, 2008

To be fair to the Chicago Tribune..

They do have a token minority pro-gun editorialist on their payroll. Steve Chapman is graciously allowed to post his pieces showing that antigun research is based mostly on fraud.

As it turns out, the claims about guns and suicide don't stand up well to scrutiny. A 2004 report by the National Academy of Sciences was doubtful, noting that the alleged association is small and may be illusory...

The National Academy of Sciences report noted that any link between firearms and suicides "is not found in comparisons across countries." The number of guns in a nation tells you nothing about its suicide rate.

So yes, areas w/ high firearm ownership will have higher numbers of firearm suicides but not necessarily suicides overall. While some high ownership US states have higher suicide rates than low ownership states, numerous low ownership countries (Most of Europe, Russia, and Japan) have much higher suicide rates than the US and rates in Australia remained steady for years even after their gun confiscations.

But we won't hear about that. All we'll hear about from the 'Mainstream Media' is the alleged suicide reduction in DC after the ban.

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