A piece I wrote for The Daily Caller focuses on an episode of The Newsroom about gun control. Here’s the set up scene in the show from which the gun control discussion ensued:
In the show, in which the newsman focuses on the lies pushed by conservatives about Obama’s gun control record, Will McAvoy cites the Brady Campaign to Stop Gun Violence as giving Obama failing grades on gun control measures and states that “President Obama is the best friend the NRA ever had.”
Later in a scene with a date, McAvoy uses the cryptic phrase “statistics show” when describing how using a gun to defend yourself (in this case, the date pointed an empty gun at McAvoy and said that she has a gun to defend from rape). I tracked down these “statistics” and determined that Aaron Sorkin and his writers took gun defense studies out of context. Nobody has studied the effectiveness of a gun used for self defense in this type of setting. The show seems to rely on research conducted on gun use in Philadelphia. The controls are out of whack, and the research doesn’t seem to account for the fact that some people wielding guns might put themselves in situations where a gun might be used against them. In which case, yes, “statistics might show” that carrying a gun for “self defense” might backfire. But if you aren’t an idiot or a thug and if you know how to handle a gun then Sorkin’s rhetoric doesn’t fly.
I no longer trusts statistics being peddled to me to try to prove a point. As any Fantasy Football player knows, stats can be found by anyone and be used to on either side to support a previous bias.
Statistics show……
If the question is : is bringing a gun into ones home more likely to result in harm or benefit?
In doing a study on this, some outcomes are easy to measure (death), other outcomes are difficult to measure (scaring away an intruder). In the realm of easy to measure outcomes, read Arthur Kellerman and P. Cummings. Kellerman found that a gun in the home is more likely to result in death from accident, homicide, and suicide, than death of an intruder.
Mcavoy’s specific assertion is impractical to study: gun for rape prevention is more likely to result in self-harm. When presented with these impractical “statistics”, ask “How was that study done?”
liberalism is advocacy of powerlessness. anyone who want more control and power over the trajectory and outcome of his life, needs to avoid liberalism and liberals like the plague.
I’ve learned to be highly suspicious of gun control studies. I recall one that stated a ridiculously high rate of firearm caused child deaths in California. Turned out that ‘child’ refered to anyone 20 and under. So, a handful of 19 year old hoods gunning each other down counted as ‘children killed by guns.’ Sorry, I don’t really remember more about the study. It’s been a few years.
This just in … White middle class people who keep their guns locked up in expensive gun safes when not personally carrying them or en route to the gun range are not like gang-banging baby daddies (and mommas) who stick a gun under a pillow or mattress and call it “safe.” When you control for educational level, RACE (particularly), marital status, income level, guns are not dangerous.
Ill educated, stupid, careless people behave … carelessly. Middle class people behave like respectable citizens. Gun owners who buy their guns legally and register them through gun shops in Montana are not the same as a gang banger in inner city Philly buying a stolen gun from the street dealer to “keep it real.” You can say the same about: alcohol consumption, driving, cars, bike riding, motorcycles, and any number of things.
Considering the massive numbers of guns in the USA (300million), and the small numbers of injuries caused by them, they one of the safest items you can own.
wrong clip? I’m confused
fixed. i don’t know what happened.
I no longer trusts statistics being peddled to me to try to prove a point. As any Fantasy Football player knows, stats can be found by anyone and be used to on either side to support a previous bias.
Don’t carry a gun, statistics show you’re going to get raped anyways! Idiots.
Statistics show……
If the question is : is bringing a gun into ones home more likely to result in harm or benefit?
In doing a study on this, some outcomes are easy to measure (death), other outcomes are difficult to measure (scaring away an intruder). In the realm of easy to measure outcomes, read Arthur Kellerman and P. Cummings. Kellerman found that a gun in the home is more likely to result in death from accident, homicide, and suicide, than death of an intruder.
Mcavoy’s specific assertion is impractical to study: gun for rape prevention is more likely to result in self-harm. When presented with these impractical “statistics”, ask “How was that study done?”
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199310073291506
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/160/10/929.ful
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1380933/
liberalism is advocacy of powerlessness. anyone who want more control and power over the trajectory and outcome of his life, needs to avoid liberalism and liberals like the plague.
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I’ve learned to be highly suspicious of gun control studies. I recall one that stated a ridiculously high rate of firearm caused child deaths in California. Turned out that ‘child’ refered to anyone 20 and under. So, a handful of 19 year old hoods gunning each other down counted as ‘children killed by guns.’ Sorry, I don’t really remember more about the study. It’s been a few years.
This just in … White middle class people who keep their guns locked up in expensive gun safes when not personally carrying them or en route to the gun range are not like gang-banging baby daddies (and mommas) who stick a gun under a pillow or mattress and call it “safe.” When you control for educational level, RACE (particularly), marital status, income level, guns are not dangerous.
Ill educated, stupid, careless people behave … carelessly. Middle class people behave like respectable citizens. Gun owners who buy their guns legally and register them through gun shops in Montana are not the same as a gang banger in inner city Philly buying a stolen gun from the street dealer to “keep it real.” You can say the same about: alcohol consumption, driving, cars, bike riding, motorcycles, and any number of things.
Considering the massive numbers of guns in the USA (300million), and the small numbers of injuries caused by them, they one of the safest items you can own.