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I wonder how John Lott's study of similar factors can have reached an entirely different conclusion. Perhaps Mr. Lott could be called on to evaluate this study and verify its findings for those of us unschooled in the art of statistics.

Form the article:

The United States has higher rates of firearm ownership than do other developed nations...

Don't Switzerland and Israel each have higher rates of ownership than the U.S. does?

"Conclusions. Although our study cannot determine causation, we found that in areas where household firearm ownership rates were higher, a disproportionately large number of people died from homicide.

This study is flawed from the start. The key word in the article is the use of "areas" for the research and not individual "home ownership". The researchers would reach the exact same conclusion by substituing "the presence of alarm systems" in the areas or by the frequency people in areas call "911", in place of gun ownership. In other words, people in high crime areas are more likely to be victims of crime. Nothing new here except the blatent attempt to blame the weapon for the crimes instead of the individual.

Dear researcher, please consider the following fact: GUNS ARE NOT SENTIENT! Currently, there are no "Intellegent Guns" capable of acting on their own. A individual is require to operate the weapon. Therefore, areas where more individuals were operating the weapons resulted in more shootings.

The first response of any rational person in fear of their life is to obtain a weapon.

"It is possible, for example, that locally elevated homicide rates may have led to increased local gun acquisition. Unfortunately, we were unable to resolve this issue, in part because cross-sectional patterns of gun ownership rates across the United States are so stable over time.19

In other words, When a individual is threatened, stalked, or burgularized, etc. they will seek a weapon for defense. Often they are forced to use the weapon. Duh!

If the researchers were truly interested in resolving the issue they need only to interview the residents of these areas and ask the question "Why do you own a firearm?"

I think the most common response would be "for protection".