Posted on 01/11/2007 9:10:14 PM PST by coloradan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American states where more people own guns have higher murder rates, including murders of children, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health reported on Thursday.
The study, certain to provoke arguments in a country where gun ownership is an important political issue, found that about one in three U.S. households reported firearm ownership.
"Our findings suggest that in the United States, household firearms may be an important source of guns used to kill children, women and men, both on the street and in their homes," said Matthew Miller, assistant professor of health policy and injury prevention, who led the study.
His team used data from a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey of 200,000 people in all 50 states.
After dividing the states into four groups based on how many households had guns, the researchers found the states in the highest quartile of firearm ownership had overall homicide rates 60 percent higher than states in the lowest quartile.
In states with the most guns, firearm homicide rates were 114 percent higher, the researchers reported in the February issue of Social Science and Medicine.
More than 200 million guns are privately owned in the United States, according to the Justice Department.
In September, the FBI released 2005 figures showing violent crime had risen 2.3 percent nationally -- the first increase in four years.
Quick let's ban all guns and save all of the children. It came from Harvard so you know there won't be a slant to this report.
The first line is either an outright lie, or they didn't bother getting to my State.
Did the study also say that per-capita deaths in major blue dem controlled thresholds were also greater?
Gee, and guess what Harvard & Reuters? Anyone who "owns" a firearm and shoots someone without just cause is a filthy criminal who should be jailed or executed. So there you go, straight from another REAL gunowner.
~ Blue Jays ~
lol! What about DC, strictest gun laws in teh nation and highest murder rates.
Watch out. The DemoRats will be coming out with their anti gun agenda verrrrry soon.
This so called unsubstantiated news is fodder.
A half notch above a grad student. And, as you say, consider the source. It certainly doesn't take a genius to see who's got an axe to grind. Well, maybe it does, since apparently no one in the media can draw a line from point A to point B.
No doubt that law abiding citizens will feel a greater need to own guns if they live in high crime areas.
Well if I lived where there were a lot of murders I'd want to protect myself with a gun too! Now does that cart go before or after that horse?
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/US_States_Rate_Ranking.html
Check out DC: 35.4 per 100K, nobody else is even close
If what they looked is the total number of households that own guns then the most populous states would be in the top quarter and the least populous states would be in the bottom quarter. Then all that the study shows is that the homicide rate is higher in more populous states.
In states with the most guns, firearm homicide rates were 114 percent higher, the researchers reported in the February issue of Social Science and Medicine.
Not that there is anything proving or disproving my possible explanation of this study, but here it is. The statements above are an interesting use of the English language. There is not one statement in this article says a higher percentage of gun ownership, it always says more households with guns and states with more guns. While one might assume that percentage is implied, I don't trust academics with an agenda.
For example if you took North Dakota and New York, there is a higher number of guns in New York and a much higher murder rate, but as a percentage North Dakota probably has more guns. I would like to know which states fall into the respective "quartiles" of this study. It might be enlightening.
I don't think they will come out with too much gun grabbing legislation yet, I think they are going to use propaganda like this to condition the masses for the next two years in hopes that they will get a Marxist Gun Grabber elected President in 08.
The study was partially funded by the Joyce Foundation, in Chicago, which has "gun violence" as one of its agenda items:
"The Gun Violence Program supports efforts to bring the firearms industry under comprehensive consumer product health and safety oversight..."
Nowhere on their Web site could I find the names of its board members.
http://www.joycefdn.org/programs/gunviolence/gunviolencemain-fs.html
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However, when I Googled the Joyce Foundation, lo and behold!!!:
"A notable recent member of the Joyce Foundation's Board of Directors was Barack Obama, who ran successfully as the Democratic candidate for an Illinois Senate seat in 2004."
And check out who they've funded...
http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/funderprofile.asp?fndid=5310
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