Monday, August 9, 2010

Medical Literature and Gun Control Continues

The Children's Memorial Research Center in Chicago has released a report on youth being killed or injured with firearms in Illinois.

It starts out with the mandatory scary paragraph:
In the United States, homicide is the second leading cause of death for
youth ages 15 to 19 and the fourth leading cause of death for children
under the age of 15. Among children over 10 years of age who have been a
victim of homicide, the vast majority have been due to firearms.

Some interesting stats they include:
The rate of firearm injury to young adolescents (ages 10 to 14) is
very low in most of Illinois, with numbers generally too low to
compute rates.

The rates of firearm hospitalization and death in Chicago are at least
four times higher than any other region in Illinois (Figure 4).

Southwest and Far South Chicago adolescents ages 15 to 19 have
very high hospitalization rates due to firearm injuries at 139.3 per
100,000 and 134.1 per 100,000 respectively (Table 2).

So in other words, economically depressed areas with high levels of crime have more gun violence. Water is wet and bears defecate in the woods.

So what is their conclusion?
A gun or other weapon does not make anyone safer. It only means that someone may be seriously hurt or killed.

A home is safer without a handgun.
And their recommendations?
• Support legislation that requires background checks for all private handgun sales to help reduce illegal trafficking of handguns.
• Support regulation and oversight of licensed gun dealers.
• Oppose laws that allow for carrying concealed handguns. Research shows that carrying concealed weapons leads to more violence, not less.
• Call on law enforcement to trace the flow of illegal handguns and assault weapons that end up in the hands of street gangs or drug dealers.


Where did they get those ideas from? Well looky what comes next:

Visit Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence (icpgv.org) for more information.
Adapted from Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence

So they endorse the agenda of politically motivated organizations even though their own data directly contradicts their claims.

Chicago, with its near ban on handguns continues to have exponentially more violence than the rest of Illinois. The only areas even remotely comparable are East St. Louis and Rockford, both areas noted for high crime, gangs and drugs.

It's amazing the amount of hypocrisy and deliberate blindness that is required even among the academic elite to support gun control.


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4 comments:

DesertRat said...

Not amazing just sad. The people who educate have a moral duty to ensure they have the facts correct.

lee n. field said...

"In the United States, homicide is the second leading cause of death for
youth ages 15 to 19 and the fourth leading cause of death for children
under the age of 15."

You know, I've always thought of that as a good sign. It means we've essentially beaten famine and disease as causes of death for that age group. What's left? Violence, of course.

Sabra said...

Reminds me of my Abnormal Psych professor saying that gun ownership is a positive predictor of suicide, a sentiment echoed by the text book in spite of the book also saying that the dip in suicide following institution of strict gun control laws (i.e., bans) is temporary if it manifests at all.

Why let reality get in the way of your political point?

Unknown said...
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